Cole Palmer‘s card is marked, and Paul Merson has boldly predicted that the Chelsea star would find it difficult to repeat his “unbelievable” form from the previous year.
In 2023–24, the England international had an incredible debut at Stamford Bridge, tallying 25 goals and dishing out 15 assists in all competitions.
The Chelsea management was obviously impressed since they chose to offer their lucky striker a new nine-year contract with better conditions, even though his previous contract still had seven years remaining.
When the Blues play Palmer’s childhood team, Manchester City, on Sunday, the offensive midfielder will be expected to perform once again in the next season.
But Merson is not confident that the 22-year-old will be able to live up to the hype, believing that every rival team will now know to focus on stopping Palmer from doing his thing.
‘He’s had an unbelievable season and he is a good player but this season every [opposition] team talk is going to be “Stop Cole Palmer playing”,’ the Arsenal legend said on Sky Sports.
‘He’s got that now the whole time. And now you’re giving him a nine-year contract?
‘I’m not sure [he will score 15 goals]. Last season he was unreal. This season he is marked.
‘We’ve seen it a million times, like with [Emmanuel] Adebayor. He ripped it up at Arsenal, got a new contract and was marked.
‘It’s going to be hard. If he gets 15 goals next season I’ll be like “wow, fair play to you”. 15 is a lot of goals.’
Merson also did not hold back when discussing Palmer’s new contract, slamming Chelsea over their policy for handing out extremely long deals, something that has become rife since Todd Boehly’s takeover.
‘It can’t be a better deal for the club. They don’t know what they’re doing,’ he added.
‘I’m not being horrible but how can you tell what he [Palmer] is going [to be like] in nine years’ time.
‘I like him but they’re giving these players six, seven, eight year contracts. Some of them don’t even play, don’t even get in the team. That’s one of the reasons Conor Gallagher’s going because he only got offered two years.
‘You know [Joao] Cancelo, three years ago at Man City he took the game to another level. One year later he was literally gone from Man City.
‘You can’t tell what these players are going to be like in six, seven years’ time.’