Chelsea have agreed a deal with Leicester City for Enzo Maresca to become the club’s next manager, with people quick to bring up that he’s worked with Cole Palmer before.
Maresca spent a year at the Manchester City academy where he worked with Palmer and Romeo Lavia with the Italian guiding City to the Premier League 2 title for the first time in their history.
Unfortunately for Palmer he didn’t get the opportunities he wanted at City to play regularly and made the move to Chelsea last summer in a deal worth £42.5m.
What Enzo Maresca has said about Cole Palmer
City’s loss was very much Chelsea’s gain as Palmer took the Premier League by storm, scoring 22 goals and providing 11 assists as he was named Premier League Young Player of the Year.
Palmer will no doubt be a key player for Maresca and surely someone the 44-year-old will look to build his side around.
The 22-year-old scored 13 goals in 16 appearances under Maresca in City’s under-21 side, and in the build-up to Chelsea’s FA Cup tie against Leicester last season the Italian was asked about Palmer, and was keen to point out how much he’s developed.
“I think people that know Cole, they don’t see any change, in terms of the things that he’s doing now, he was always doing”, Maresca said in quotes picked up by Football London.
“The only difference is, unfortunately with City, he had many players like him so he struggled a little bit.
“At Chelsea now, he’s found more space so he’s showing himself, so Cole now is the player that everyone is watching.”
Maresca was also asked if he felt Palmer’s move to Chelsea was the right move for him.
“I don’t know to be honest, this is a question for Cole”, he added.
“But probably to decide to play every game, I said many times, we have players that unfortunately this year they didn’t play too much so they come to me or the club to ask to leave.
“At the end they work every day not to be on the bench, they work every day to play and when you don’t play, you are not happy, and with Cole, he decides to leave, with Chelsea, [so] he would play more minutes.
“With Cole, it was quite clear, if you see him every day in the training session or you see him when he plays some minutes with City, no one at City had any doubts about Cole as a player.”
It will be interesting to see how Maresca utilises Palmer, and if he can get him to produce a similar output next season.
