'If we rocked up at Cardiff with tiki-taka, the locals wouldn't be having it'

Brian Barry-Murphy faces his former colleague Enzo Maresca and Chelsea in the Carabao Cup tonight

- Ben Fisher

When it comes to Cole Palmer a montage of magical moments spring to Brian Barry-Murphy’s mind, but one episode, a little more than four years ago, particularly sticks.

Barry-Murphy was in charge of Manchester City’s under-21s on the evening when Palmer - fresh from replacing Bernardo Silva as an 89th-minute substitute in a 2-0 Premier League win against Burley - strolled across the bridge at the Etihad Campus and reported for duty at the academy stadium, scoring a sensational hat-trick in a 5-0 victory against Leicester.

It is a story Barry-Murphy - now in charge of the League One leaders, Cardiff - recounts although Palmer won't be in the opposition team when Chelsea visit in the Carabao Cup quarterfinals.

With a smile, Barry-Murphy says: “He said to Pep [Guardiola] and [his former assistant] Rodolfo Borrell the day before the game: ‘There’s an under-21 game tomorrow night; if I don’t get on, can I play?’ There’s a picture of him waiting to come on [against Burnley] and turning to Guardiola: ‘Can I still go and play?’ A lot of players would view coming back to the under-21s as a drop down. But he just wanted to play. In those games, he would pick up the ball and go past five, six players. He made me look like a really good coach.

“When I first went into Manchester City it was like the Harlem Globetrotters: Palmer, [Roméo] Lavia, [James] McAtee, Oscar Bobb, Liam Delap ... my first game in charge of the under-21s, I remember looking around the dressing room thinking: these guys are worth zillions. You have to coach them in a way that makes them believe in what you’re going to say and do.”