My thing was never to leave City - Palmer

BUT why would Manchester City sell a 20-goal winger with unlimited potential for such a bargain price?

- JOE BRAY

How could they be so foolish? 

Why did Pep Guardiola get this one so wrong?

As City head for another showdown with Cole Palmer and Chelsea this weekend, they will come face to face with the surprise success of the season. Palmer left City as a promising youngster without a Premier League goal to his name in September and now he has 20, level with Erling Haaland. He is the form player in the division and the signing of the season.

There's a very real chance he will stop City from defending their FA Cup trophy if he continues his scoring form today and questions will again be raised of just how the Blues allowed him to slip from their grasp.

But the truth - however inconvenient for the weekend narratives - is that the £42.5m transfer was a good deal for City, for Palmer and, as it turns out, for Chelsea.

Were the same people calling that fee a bargain 20 goals later saying the same back in the summer? Maybe not. At that point, he was just as much another expensive Chelsea winger as anything else. An expensive gamble.

However talented Palmer clearly was, there was no predicting that he would be as successful as he has been at Stamford Bridge.

City had given Palmer chances over the previous two seasons, but he always struggled to take his chance in the Premier League.

He seemed to be torn between doing what he thought Guardiola wanted him to do and doing what his brilliant instincts were urging him to do.

Is it a surprise that he name-checked Mauricio Pochettino for giving him the freedom' to express himself as a reason behind his sparkling season? When Guardiola introduced him in the Community Shield in August, he told Palmer to 'be himself' and a wonderful goal followed. And so did a clever header in the UEFA Super Cup.

That came off the back of a starring role in England's U21 Euro success - and Palmer returned a different, more confident player.