Underused England winger Cole Palmer spoke to the media a bit yesterday ahead of England’s last-16 clash with Slovakia on Sunday at Euro 2024, and among the topics he was quizzed on was the change of manager at Chelsea.
The 22-year-old had already made his feelings towards Mauricio Pochettino clear, thanking the outgoing manager for the opportunity to shine at Chelsea and expressing his sadness at his departure (by mutual agreement with the club). But Palmer is unique within the team and has also worked with Enzo Maresca, who played a key role in the development of our young star at Manchester City.
And this does not escape our young star either (who has scored 13 goals and made 6 assists from the right wing in 16 PL2 games during this 2020-21 season under Maresca).
“(Pochettino) just gave me the opportunity and the freedom and said ‘do what you do’. I was (sorry to see him go) because he trusted me and we built a good relationship. Not just with him but with all his staff who were there. When he left I was gutted.
“That’s probably the main reason why I’m in the England team because another manager maybe wouldn’t have given me that freedom and opportunity to do what I did at Chelsea.”
“It was Enzo who put me on the right side. So from the under-18s I was playing as a number 10 and when I moved to the under-23s, Enzo put me on the right side. It was my first full season on the right side. He’s a good coach, a very good coach. I think tactically he knows what he’s doing. He’s going to improve a lot of players.”
-Cole Palmer; source: Telegraph
Palmer will obviously not say anything negative, but it is nice to see that he is strongly behind the new man in charge. Given the still young and inexperienced nature of this team, further improvements will need to be made, and these will need to be facilitated by the head coach.
