Manchester City are planning to be without Cole Palmer next season but are not willing to consider selling him.
Palmer, 21, caught Pep Guardiola's eye in 2020 as the first team returned to training in the first lockdown and made his debut later that year. He continued to impress and has started in the Premier League and scored in the Champions League since, but injury wiped out the second half of his 2021/22 campaign and he underwhelmed this season until the final few weeks of the campaign after the title had already been won.
City intend for Palmer to spend next season on loan, where he can get regular first-team minutes at a high level and regain confidence and form. Several top clubs across Europe have been tracking the versatile playmaker for some time and have shown interest again this summer.
However, the club do not intend to sell Palmer with no price given to other parties whether as part of a loan deal or this summer. The spot in Guardiola's squad vacated by Palmer is expected to be filled internally, with Norwegian attacker Oscar Bobb in contention after winning Player of the Year for the Under-21s two years in a row.
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Palmer was part of the matchday squads at Wembley and in Istanbul and will continue his season at the Under-21 Championships with England in Georgia. Former City academy manager Lee Carsley will lead the team and admits Palmer's game time will need to be monitored.
“You have to remember their age, they are like 20, 21, they need to enjoy themselves and have that downtime because there is a lot of demands on them," he said.
“Cole is very motivated to do well this tournament, we have to be realistic as well with the demand that we put on him because he is not used to playing 90, 90, 90. Getting him through the amount of games we are going to need to get to the final is going to be the challenge.”
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