There are few better sights in football than watching a young player who is playing just as they would in the school yard, with an expressive, care-free abandon that delights the fans and bamboozles the opposition.
Fans of a certain vintage would point to Paul Gascoigne’s Italia 90 appearances, while a young Wayne Rooney carried this spirit into his early Three Lions performances at Euro 2004.
The day Palmer turned out twice for Manchester City
Palmer’s love for getting out on the grass and expressing himself is clear to see, and this is backed up by an anecdote from one of his former youth team coaches at Manchester City.
“He was splitting his time between us and the seniors – training with Pep’s side but getting proper game time with us,” explains ex-City youth team coach Brian Barry-Murphy, who is now boss at League One Cardiff City.
“Sometimes when young players are getting that first taste of senior action, their focus can wane when they come back down, but that was never the case with Cole.”
Proof of that came in October 2021. After coming off the bench to make just his second Premier League appearance, in the last minute of a 3pm home win against Burnley, he jumped at the chance to get some more minutes in.
Palmer would quickly get changed before dashing over the road to score a hat-trick against Leicester U23s in a game that kicked off at 7.30pm.
“That was Cole’s idea, by the way,” smiles Barry-Murphy. “He’d cleared it all with Pep beforehand.
“He knew he’d only get a couple of minutes with the first team and he wanted to play. He was brilliant that night, we won it 5-0, and you wouldn’t have known he’d just been sharing a pitch with Rodri and Phil Foden.
“He made no mention of it.”
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