Chelsea and England star Cole Palmer has spoken publicly for the first time about how Manchester City nearly released him as a teenager, revealing the challenges he faced in his early academy days due to his smaller stature. In a candid interview featured in the new Amazon Prime documentary England’s Lions: A New Generation, set to premiere on March 15, 2025, the 22-year-old also insisted that his £42.5 million move to Chelsea in 2023 was not his initial intention, as he had hoped to remain with his boyhood club.
Palmer, now a key figure at Stamford Bridge and a regular in the England national team, reflected on a pivotal moment in his youth career when senior Manchester City academy staff were prepared to let him go. “The coach had a different way of seeing it,” Palmer said in the documentary. “Up until that point, most coaches would like me. They’d play me no matter how small I was.” However, concerns over his height and physicality led to doubts about his future at the club. It was only the intervention of then-academy director Jason Wilcox that kept Palmer at City, overturning the decision to release him.
Palmer’s father, Jermaine, provided further insight into the struggles his son faced. “The kids were bigger, older. They were smashing him all the time,” Jermaine recalled. “They measure a bone in your hand, which tells you how big you’re going to be. They said he was going to be five foot nine. And then he nearly got let go by City. Proper brutal.” Jermaine, however, remained confident in his son’s potential, believing a growth spurt would come. “I thought if he was anything like me, he’d grow when he gets to 16. And then we’d know how big he’ll be,” he added. Palmer himself admitted he was skeptical about growing taller, but his eventual physical development proved transformative.
Despite overcoming early setbacks to captain City’s under-18s and break into the first team, Palmer’s departure from Manchester City in the summer of 2023 was not part of his original plan. After contributing to City’s treble-winning 2022-23 season, including scoring in the 2023 UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla, Palmer sought more playing time. “I really didn’t want to go,” he said in the documentary. “I was adamant that I wasn’t going. I’ve never moved out of Manchester… Why am I not getting the chance to play? You know when you’re ready.”
Palmer revealed that his preference was to go on loan for a year to gain experience before returning to fight for a spot in Pep Guardiola’s squad. “My thing was to never leave City,” he told Sky Sports in January 2024. “That was not my intention. I wanted to go on loan for a year, come back, and be ready.” However, City rejected the loan option, leaving him with a stark choice: stay and compete for limited minutes or leave permanently. “They refused him a loan,” Jermaine explained. “So he said he’d have to leave.”
When Chelsea came calling with a £42.5 million offer, Palmer saw it as an opportunity to secure regular first-team football. “It was the best decision,” he said, reflecting on the move that has since seen him become one of the Premier League’s standout performers. In his debut season at Chelsea in 2023-24, Palmer scored 22 goals and provided 11 assists, earning the PFA Young Player of the Year award. This season, he has continued his fine form, including breaking the record for the most penalties scored without a miss in the Premier League (12 out of 12) during a 4-3 victory over Tottenham in December 2024.
Palmer’s revelations shed light on the challenges he faced at Manchester City, from nearly being cut as a teenager to feeling disheartened by limited opportunities in the first team. “He thought he’d be at City all his life,” Jermaine noted. Yet, his move to Chelsea has proven to be a turning point, propelling him to new heights both domestically and internationally, including scoring in the Euro 2024 final for England.