There is a viral video that showed Cole Palmer of Chelsea being pushed away by Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland when he jokingly joined a Manchester City on-field planning session. Palmer, one of the best that the Premier League has to offer, had left Etihad for Stamford Bridge for £40 million, potentially rising to £45 million with add-ons, in September 2023. Now Pep Guardiola wants him back and has asked City directors to spend as much as it takes to bring him back, a report said.

The news comes not long after an earlier report claiming that European champions PSG are willing to make a €250 million (around £217 million) bid for the English attacker, who was their master tormentor during the FIFA Club World Cup summit clash. It is said that City are open to spending as much as £147 million to get back their former attacker from London. The sum is far more than the current British record of £116.5m spent on Florian Wirtz by Liverpool and in the region of their proposed bid to get Alexander Isak from Newcastle United.

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After Palmer became a consistent performer at Chelsea, Guardiola had called him an exceptional player who deserved more play time, which he couldn’t provide. Chelsea made him a regular starter, and it was only natural that he was doing justice to his potential, the gaffer had said. “He’s a shy guy with a lot of potential. It is what it is. He’s playing fantastic so what can I say? The decision has been made for many reasons… He was asking for two seasons to leave and I said stay. He said he wanted to leave. What could we do? I said stay because Riyad Mahrez is gone, but for two seasons he wanted to leave,” Pep had said.

Will Chelsea sell Palmer?

Needless to say, Palmer is an untouchable at Chelsea. They have as many as ten players to offload, but the 23-year-old English international is not among them. The current contract of the approximately £100 million-worth star runs till 2031 as he joined on an eight-year deal.

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UEFA Conference League and 2025 FIFA Club World Cup winner Cole Palmer has managed 43 goals in 97 matches for the Blues. An academy graduate of City, he made his senior debut in 2020. He made 41 appearances across competitions, scoring six times and assisting twice.