Football fans have taken aim at Pep Guardiola for the ‘biggest mistake of his career’ in selling Cole Palmer after the Chelsea star scored four goals in the first-half against Brighton on Saturday.
Chelsea snapped up Palmer from Manchester City last year in a deal worth a reported £42.5million.
He went on to enjoy an incredible debut season at Stamford Bridge, scoring 25 goals and providing 15 assists in all competitions.
Guardiola insisted that he didn’t want Palmer to leave the Etihad stadium, but felt powerless to the deal happening.
Cole Palmer was on fire against Brighton
PA
In Palmer’s final season at City, he started just two Premier League games and struggled for regular minutes under Guardiola.
But the England international’s rise to superstardom at Chelsea has led to further questions about City’s decision to let him leave.
And Palmer’s latest performance against Brighton has led to further attacks on Guardiola for not fighting harder to keep him.
The 22-year-old fired a 10-minute hat-trick before adding a fourth in the first half against Brighton on Saturday.
One angry City supporter posted: “Pep basically told Palmer to f*** off in his Super Cup press conference, replaced him with “Doku” and has now become so stubborn that it’s costing us points. Just give him his farewell next summer, don’t bother with a renewal.”
Another said: “Palmer is surely pep’s biggest mistake of his career.”
A third wrote: “Imagine keeping Foden over palmer. Pep dropped the ball on that one.”
One other fumed: “Pep’s somewhere kicking the seat again for selling palmer.”
Manchester City sold Cole Palmer to Chelsea in 2023
PA
Another stated: “Pep’s one of greatest manager’s of all time but letting Palmer go was a humongous mistake.”
Palmer’s four goals against Brighton now puts him on six for the season in as many games.
The England star has quickly become Chelsea’s main talisman with Enzo Maresca fully aware rival teams will do everything they can to try and stop him.
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Cole Palmer is in the form of his life at Chelsea
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He was man-marked by Lewis Cook in Chelsea’s narrow 1-0 win over Bournemouth earlier this month.
And Maresca called on his Chelsea squad to try and find a ‘solution’ to teams targeting Palmer in matches.
“These kind of players are probably going to have these things,” Maresca said.
“Cook was marking him for 95 minutes man-to-man before we put him wide. It is not easy for Cole or any player. You need to find a different solution.”