Things that Cole Palmer is not bothered about, part 89: golf. Which is a pity as he is spending a warm-weather training week with England at the magnificent Camiral Golf & Wellness resort; the expected venue for the 2031 Ryder Cup.
Formula One. Palmer attended the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday with Thomas Tuchel and the rest of the England squad, which he thought was good. “I went to the one in Abu Dhabi not long ago,” he says, presumably meaning the race in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. Who knows, who cares? “But I fell asleep at that one.”
The searing heat in the US, which Palmer will experience with Chelsea in the coming weeks at the Club World Cup. And then again next summer if and when England qualify for the World Cup, which is also being hosted by Canada and Mexico. “It will play a part because I’m not used to it, but I don’t think it will be a big problem,” he says.
Oh, and southerners. Manchester’s finest made a comment last summer about how he was finding them hard work after his first season at Chelsea. Has he come to terms with them now? “No, they’re all still moody,” he says. “I think because it’s so busy, they’re all stressed. It must be a southern thing. I don’t live in central London. Sometimes I go in but I couldn’t live there.”
If Palmer is a unique talent on the pitch, he is unique to interview as well. Short shrift is his default setting; plenty of his answers are monosyllabic, some just a sound: hmmm. A shrug. It is impossible to ignore the quintessentially Manc vibe.
Palmer has a deadpan expression which wonders: “Why are you asking me that?” Example: how is he spending his downtime at the Camiral? “Play PlayStation … Fifa,” he replies. Like, seriously? As on the pitch, Palmer is cool, cold. He is highly entertaining.
When was the last time Palmer was angry? “Errr,” he says, after a typically long pause. “I don’t really know. Maybe when I’m playing PlayStation. I’m not just a robot like you guys in the media think I am … and don’t show no emotion. Obviously when there’s no cameras and I’m on the phone to my mates and I’m doing stuff I enjoy doing …”
Palmer is asked where his temperament comes from. “Maybe my dad,” he says. “He’s laid-back like me. My mum says: ‘Try and be a bit more involved and a bit more smiley and energetic.’ Maybe she’s like that but me and my dad are just too laid-back, I think.”
And yet no one in the room at the Camiral, which is dominated by a beautiful Jack Nicklaus watercolour, can fail to be struck by Palmer’s single-mindedness; the steel and hunger. It is there when he talks about Chelsea, how they proved the doubters wrong in the closing weeks of the domestic season to secure a return to the Champions League, sewing up qualification with the final-day victory at Nottingham Forest.
“Because we had that little spell where we weren’t too great … everyone was saying: ‘They’re not going to get Champions League,’” Palmer says. “So to get it was good. We finished well. When we got it at Forest, it was like a relief.”
Palmer has a Champions League winners’ medal from 2022-23 with Manchester City, although he was an unused substitute in the final against Inter; indeed, he did not get off the bench in any of the knockout rounds. He has made only one start in the competition: in City’s dead-rubber final group tie that season, against Sevilla. This time, with Palmer having turbocharged his profile and influence, it stands to be different.
“I always say that I don’t feel like a Champions League winner,” Palmer says. “It doesn’t really mean anything to me. When people say it … yeah, but I didn’t play, I wasn’t involved. Obviously I played in the group and stuff like that but it’s not the same, is it? I’ve still got the medal, I’ve not thrown it away. But it’s not like I feel like I’ve won it.”
Palmer’s focus is on England. Having missed Tuchel’s first camp in March because of injury, he is determined to impress in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra in Barcelona. There is then the friendly against Senegal in Nottingham next Tuesday.
The issue for Tuchel is how best to accommodate Palmer when he also has Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden. It is the same issue that his predecessor Gareth Southgate faced; ditto Lee Carsley, who was in interim charge before Tuchel took over.
Southgate never started Palmer in a competitive game. He used him exclusively off the bench at Euro 2024 where the 23-year-old came on to score the equaliser in the final against Spain, a game that England would lose 2-1. Palmer has 11 caps to date, four as a starter. Foden has missed out on this camp because of injury.
“It’s play well at my club … hopefully people can see it and I can turn into a starter for England,” Palmer says. “Last season I played all wide [in midfield] and this season I’ve moved [more centrally]. Wherever he [Tuchel] puts me, I’ll play.”
Palmer’s goal against Spain was the perfect illustration of his ability to live in the moment and seize it, oblivious to the pressure. It was a similar story in Chelsea’s Conference League final win over Real Betis last week, albeit the stakes were not as high. One-nil down, Palmer said he was “sick of going backwards and sideways”. So he trusted his skill, ran at Betis and made it happen with two assists. Chelsea won 4-1.
Palmer is back on the up after an unfathomable dry spell from mid-January when he went 18 matches without a goal. The run ended with the penalty against Liverpool in the fourth-last game of the Premier League season. He finished with 15 goals and 12 assists in all competitions.
“Things weren’t happening for me and it went on a bit longer than I thought it would,” Palmer says. “But I spoke to people about it and they explained it’s going to happen. They said that when I get out of it, I’ll be an even better player. When you go to Chelsea and you jump up and then you go into a dip, you think: ‘What’s going on?’ But I didn’t mind …”
Palmer catches himself, and there is a rare line from him before he remembers who he is. “Well, obviously, I did mind,” he says. “But I didn’t think: ‘Ah, this is the end of the world.’”
