Manchester City made an error in offloading Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5m last summer, according to former England manager Sam Allardyce.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Allardyce said that the 21-year-old has a good chance of making it into England’s squad for the European Championships next year, and he feels that manager Pep Guardiola will now regret letting him go:

“Who else is going to come along like Jude Bellingham and take the reins and drop into the team? What a fantastic player Will it be Palmer this time? What a prospect he looks. It looks like Man City have slipped up selling him.”

Palmer has had a strong start to his career at Chelsea, having scored 4 times and provided 4 assists in 14 appearances for the Blues, although it must be said that he has yet to score from open play, with all of his goals coming from the penalty spot.

Should City have done more to keep hold of Palmer?

In hindsight, it does look like that the Premier League champions have made a mistake in allowing a talented young player to join Chelsea.

However, it was Palmer who wanted to leave the Etihad. He was frustrated that Guardiola couldn’t give him guarantees about his game time, so a parting of the ways looked inevitable.

City have given young players opportunities

There have been suggestions that, after Jeremy Doku was signed, it effectively closed the door on Palmer getting more minutes but the Belgian’s favoured position is on the left wing, while the Englishman prefers to play centrally or on the right flank.

Guardiola has shown with the likes of Phil Foden and Rico Lewis in recent years that he is prepared to give chances to youngsters. Palmer was simply unlucky that the squad is stacked in the positions that he likes to play.

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