This weekend sees another round of international matches, and with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer called up to the senior England squad by Gareth Southgate, the youngster is dreaming of making his debut.
Palmer has been in fine form for the Blues having made the difficult decision to leave Man City, a team whom he denied all three points at the weekend thanks to his coolly taken injury-time penalty which saw the Super Sunday match end 4-4.
During his press conference ahead of the Malta match on Friday, he sat down to speak to the media who asked him immediately how his Man City supporting mates were with him because of that late goal.
“Just mixed messages,” he said. “When I scored on Sunday the majority of them were happy for me.”
Growing up it seems that the 21-year-old had always dreamed of wearing the Three Lions at major tournaments and otherwise, though it was hard for him to visualise the dream coming true.
Asked who his playing heroes were growing up, Palmer had no hesitation in naming three titans of the game: “Rooney, Ronaldo and Messi,” was the briefest of responses, and he’d surely be delighted with the international careers of any one of the three.
Man City have a hugely talented squad and that’s arguably the reason why Palmer decided to move on. With so many new players at Chelsea over the summer, he’d have been forgiven for thinking he’d gone from out of the frying pan into the fire.
He backed himself to succeed however.
“I looked at the squad and thought if I go there and show what I can do, I’ve got a chance of playing and thankfully it’s happened,” he noted.
“I think I’m a player that always wants the ball so I can help the team get out of difficult situations, create a chance…”
His former manager, Pep Guardiola, clearly harboured no hard feelings. “He just said congratulations and hope I’m enjoying it,” Palmer said.
A player that also made the trip from the Etihad Stadium to Stamford Bridge was Raheem Sterling, and though he’s not been called up on this occasion, he’s clearly been an influence on Palmer.
“When I was coming through at City, he just helped me a lot, told me bits of advice and stuff. When I went to Chelsea I spoke to him,” Palmer noted.