Man Utd coach reveals Cole Palmer transfer approach before Chelsea deal | Football

Manchester United academy coach Colin Little has revealed that Cole Palmer came ‘close’ to leaving Manchester City for Old Trafford as a teenager.

Palmer, 22, has established himself as one of the most exciting talents in Premier League football since joining Chelsea and was named the PFA Young Player of the Year after an extraordinary debut season at Stamford Bridge last term.

Manchester City’s decision to allow Palmer sign for a direct rival raised some questions at the time and Pep Guardiola has since gone on record admitting the £40million move was a ‘mistake’.

However, it has emerged that Palmer flirted with the possibility of leaving City for arch-rivals United three years before he had even made his debut for the Premier League champions.

According to United Under-18 coach Little, Palmer has always been a ‘big United fan’ and the forward ‘ummed and ahed’ about moving to the red half of Manchester when he was aged 16

‘I know Cole Palmer’s family quite well, I know his dad and his uncle, and we were close to getting Cole Palmer when he was about 16, believe it or not,’ Little explained on The Athletic’s Talk of the Devils podcast.

‘He was umming and ahing and I knew he was a big United fan.’

But City eventually made Palmer a ‘good enough offer’ and the young Englishman would go on to commit his future to City – that is until he joined Chelsea in 2023.

Little added: ‘He was at that age where you’re allowed to leave, 16 is it? And they were umming and ahing, Manchester City, about it.

‘I think in the end Manchester City made him a good enough offer.

‘But really, he was always a Manchester United fan and it was close anyway, I remember speaking.’

Little continued: ‘I think City needed to show him a bit more love and that kind of stuff.

‘We never quite got it over the line but it would have been nice if we did, wouldn’t it?’

Palmer has been nothing short of a revelation since swapping City for Chelsea, scoring 39 goals in 78 games for the west London giants.

However, the England international is without a goal in his last ten appearances in all competitions in what has been undoubtedly his most frustrating spell for Chelsea to date.

A hamstring injury meant Palmer missed Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal before the international break, as well as England’s World Cup qualifying wins over Albania and Latvia.

But Palmer returned to first-team training on Friday and there are hopes he could be involved on Thursday night when Enzo Maresca’s men face off against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have also been pictured in training at Cobham this week after working their way back from muscle injuries.

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