Even a prodigious talent such as Cole Palmer felt he was best served moving on from the club in order to get playing regular first-team football, such is the challenge of getting past a host of the planet's best players in the pecking order. James McAtee is just five months younger than Palmer and rather than moving on from the club in order to get minutes under his belt,
When Manchester City decided to sell 21-year-old bit-part player Cole Palmer to Chelsea for 42.5m in September 2023, after his 19 Premier League appearances for the club had produced no goals, they may have initially felt that they'd got the better of the deal. Two years later, Palmer struck his 38th Premier League goal for Chelsea this September, on only his 72nd appearance, and he has now become key for both club and country.