Cole Palmer: Chelsea’s Rising Star Reshaping Deadline Day Success Stories
There are a select few players to move clubs on Deadline Day to be as successful as Cole Palmer has been in the past two years. When you think of a move at the end of the window, it is often a panic buy and whilst players may provide occasionally, they are rarely the star of the team. Palmer has completely flipped that narrative though.
In the 2023/24 season, he recorded 33 goal contributions in as many Premier League – a staggering feat for any player, let alone for someone who has just joined a new club and is not even in a ‘primary goalscorer’ position, so to speak.
For this reason, when he was priced at above 10/1 to be the Golden Boot winner this season, it came as a bit of a shock. However, the confusion does not end there. After 16 games this season, the Englishman already has 11 goals (which is half of last season’s goal tally) and only Mo Salah and Erling Haaland have a better record so far – both sit on 13 goals.
His odds for the Premier League Golden Boot have not really shortened enough for there to be no value, and sitting at 8/1, there is a chance that some nice money could be made with his importance to Chelsea not lessening.
There has not been a player to score more goals from open play than ‘cold’ Palmer (14), according to Sky, which is an amount greater than Salah and Bukayo Saka – albeit it the latter is not really competition for the golden boot – which just shows how fantastic his goal output is and has been.
Title picture
At present, Chelsea are firmly in a title fight, even if Enzo Maresca has been trying to lower the expectations with claims to the press that they are not thinking of such a thing.
“No matter how many games we win, I think we are not ready to compete for the title,” the coach said to the media as Goal relays, but it is difficult to think that this is the message that will be being told inside the walls of the changing room.
Instead, we imagine he will be trying to ensure he gets the best from his key players and anything that comes as a result from that is simply a bonus, because we must remember that the Chelsea project, let alone the Maresca project, is still in an infancy stage.
Should the Blues continue on the way towards a Premier League title though, you would imagine that Cole Palmer will have a direct influence, but there is not likely any pressure on him specifically to carry the team to that level, instead probably the opposite.
For Palmer and Maresca, the focus will be on doing things one game at a time, rather than worrying about what happens at the end of the season, which probably benefits things in the long run. But if Palmer’s numbers continue as they have been, and there has been no signs of them slowing down, then it would be difficult to not see them involved in the title race at the end of the season.
The Future of Chelsea
In recent years, the Blues have seen a lot of changes, but things seem to be calming down now, so we can get a better grasp of how their team will progress in years to come. One thing is crystal clear, the future is Palmer and the squad will be built around him.
The midfielder is adored by the Stamford Bridge faithful, with some even drawing comparisons between him and Eden Hazard. A staggering comparison which just shows the appreciation that the fanbase has for its new champion.
The Englishman had a fantastic 2024 – and there is still time for him to make it an even better year – and with him only being 22, he will only continue to get better. This level of output for a player this young is terrifying for the rest of the league, but Chelsea will not be putting pressure on him, because the road is only forward and up for Palmer and in turn the Stamford Bridge side.
