Chelsea have completed the signing of Cole Palmer from Manchester City.
Palmer has moved to Chelsea for an initial fee of £40million, with £2.5m due in potential add-ons, and signed a seven-year contract with the option of a further season.
The 21-year-old attacking midfielder is a product of the City academy and had been with the club since under-6 level.
“I’m excited to get started and it feels great to sign,” said Palmer. “I’ve joined Chelsea because the project here sounds good and because of the platform I will have to try to showcase my talents.
“It is a young and hungry squad and, hopefully, we can do something special here.”
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Palmer scored in the Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup final for City this season but made just one substitute appearance in the Premier League and expressed his desire for regular first-team football.
He made 19 appearances in the Premier League for City and a further 22 in additional competitions, scoring six goals.
Chelsea have been seeking to bolster their attacking options with Mykhailo Mudryk, Christopher Nkunku, Armando Broja and Carney Chukwuemeka all on the sidelines.
Earlier this month, the club were close to bringing in Michael Olise, only to see the 21-year-old sign a new contract with Crystal Palace instead.
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Writing was on the wall for Palmer at City
Analysis from Sam Lee
Palmer’s situation at City may have appeared complicated on the face of it — he is a highly-rated young player who plays on the right wing and would be well-placed to play more given City have lost Riyad Mahrez.
But he did not push on last season, Pep Guardiola has not seemed fully sold on him (in the way that he was with Phil Foden or Rico Lewis), City have signed Jeremy Doku for the right wing and the big transfer fee offered by Chelsea is very hard to turn down.
He has been keen on a move somewhere where he can play more regularly during the summer — whether he gets that at Chelsea remains to be seen — and City have been open to an outright sale for a while now.
After scoring the equalising goal in the Super Cup, he spoke to reporters and said he would like to stay at City but if they were to sign somebody it makes it difficult, and they soon signed Doku.
The writing was probably on the wall at that point.
(Photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
