It’s an exciting time to be of a Chelsea persuasion. Enzo Maresca led the Blues to two major titles last season and finished fourth in the Premier League to open the doorway to this year’s Champions League proper.
And the signs throughout pre-season are promising. Though it’s important not to get carried away by the happenings of this off-season hinterland, Chelsea look fluid and dangerous in attack, with the summer signings widening the scope of Maresca’s tactical vision.
New players have arrived, and old players have locked their lockers at Stamford Bridge. Everything is primed for the 2025/26 campaign.
To lose one of the club’s superstars now would be a vicious blow, but, according to reports, that’s something Maresca and the board might have to contend with.
Chelsea receive record-breaking offer
Chelsea might fork out a fair bit each year, but they also recoup plenty of money from cashed-in surplus. Indeed, the Blues have mastered the art of pawning off unwanted players, thus mitigating their losses when Todd Boehly doesn’t receive bang for his buck.
While players such as Nicolas Jackson are touted to leave west London this month, moves are being made to welcome a series of further attacking signings.
If rivals feel that means one of Chelsea’s main men could be leaving, they are wrong.
But even so, Spanish sources have reported that Manchester City are preparing an audacious £200m +£50m in add-ons offer to sign Cole Palmer, having already seen an approach rejected for the England international.
In September 2023, Chelsea signed Palmer from Pep Guardiola’s side for £42.5m. He was unknown at the time, but now stands as one of football’s poster boys.
For all the money in the world, losing the 23-year-old at this stage of his career and this stage of Chelsea’s development is unacceptable.
Another Salah situation for Chelsea
Were Chelsea to sell Palmer, they would not, at least, be blighted in terms of depth. Not really. The Blues have welcomed many players into the fold over the past few years, and are in talks with RB Leipzig to sign versatile playmaker Xavi Simons for £60m, with Christopher Nkunku headed the other way.
But Palmer was named “the best player in the Premier League” by pundit Jamie Carragher last season, and indeed, he’s been nothing short of a revelation for the Blues, talismanic in winning the Conference League and the Club World Cup last season.
Across two seasons in all competitions, Palmer has scored 43 goals and supplied 23 assists across 97 matches for Chelsea.
Were BlueCo to let him leave and grow into an even bigger sensation with a Premier League rival, it might just prove to be Chelsea’s biggest mistake since selling Mohamed Salah to Roma in 2016.
Salah, as we all know, has since returned to the Premier League and cemented himself as one of the division’s greats with Liverpool, winning two top-flight titles and the Champions League among many other honours, posting 245 goals and 113 assists across 402 matches for the Reds.
As Arne Slot won England’s biggest prize in his debut campaign last year, somehow replacing the irreplaceable Jurgen Klopp, it was Salah who knuckled down and ensured the Anfield side claimed their prize, breaking the record for goal involvements in a 38-game top-flight season, notching 47 all told (29 goals, 18 assists).
Carragher might feel that Palmer is English football’s finest player, but it was Salah’s season. However, a decade the Chelsea star’s senior, there could be a passing of the torch in a short time, with Palmer dominating such conversations over the coming decade.
The nature of Chelsea’s transfer model means that letting certain stars-in-the-making slip through the cracks is unavoidable, but that’s why cashing in on Palmer would be such a bleak transgression.
Could it be that Palmer has the potential to become one of the Premier League’s greatest players of all time? One of the most revered and the most decorated in Chelsea’s long history? Big, bold claims, but not without substance. Palmer, to be sure, has started in such a vein, and if he’s started as he means to go on, there’s every chance such predictions could come true.
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At least Salah was sold to a team out on the continent, where he found his footing and cut his teeth on the Serie A scene, working toward elite status.
Now, he’s peerless at the top of the English charts. But Palmer is gaining, and he’s gaining fast. Since joining, Chelsea’s star attacking midfielder has notched just one goal involvement fewer than Man City’s Erling Haaland, who is the most prolific striker in the world and has assumed second place.
Salah
70
47
28
75
Haaland
62
49
9
58
Watkins
75
35
23
58
Palmer
70
37
20
57
Isak
64
44
8
52
Ultimately, Chelsea have shown that they can stretch out their financial arm and match the biggest hitters in the Premier League and across Europe in the transfer market.
Were £250m banked for Palmer, it stands to reason that several new offensive signings should be brought in.
But the Three Lions “superstar”, as he has been called by journalist Jonathan Northcroft, is a transcendental player, utterly brilliant and one-of-a-kind. To lose him would be to lose the nucleus of Maresca’s side, unthinkable when looking at the progress made: two trophies last season and a reclaimed seat at the Champions League table.
When Chelsea got rid of Salah way back when, he was a talented but unproven up-and-comer. To part with Palmer when he’s already one of the best players in Europe would be a far more egregious mistake.
