Gary Neville criticised for Cole Palmer comments after Chelsea’s defeat to Man City

Gary Neville has been criticised for calling out Cole Palmer’s post-match conversation with Pep Guardiola following Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City last weekend.

Chelsea started strongly at the Etihad and made an early breakthrough as Noni Madueke capitalised on a horrendous error from City newboy Abdukodir Khusanov to open the scoring.

But Nicolas Jackson squandered a golden chance to double Chelsea’s advantage and the visitors were punished for their wastefulness in front of goal, with Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland hitting the target either side of half-time.

Phil Foden put the game to bed with a composed finish past Robert Sanchez in the 87th minute and the Premier League champions held firm to secure maximum points from the heavyweight contest.

Shortly after the final whistle, Palmer – who had an uncharacteristically quiet match by his standards – was seen chatting and sharing a joke with with Pep Guardiola, his former manager at City.

While the details of the exchange were – and still are – unknown, former Manchester United and England defender Neville suggested Palmer had ‘been played’ for getting dragged into Guardiola’s games.

‘I want to say something about Cole Palmer, he was talking to Pep Guardiola on the pitch right at the end of the game and he was smiling with him… Pep Guardiola does that,’ Neville said on Sky Sports.

‘Cole, you’re being played, you’re being played here, you didn’t do enough out on that pitch in the second half.

‘He’s an amazing player, absolutely brilliant, but you know something, those Chelsea fans that travelled today, the 3,000 or 4,000 in that far corner wanted better than that, they don’t really want to see you conversing with your opposition manager and smiling at the end of the game.

‘I’m not being old school here, but there’s something about that.

‘I thought, “Pep Guardiola’s playing you here”. I know he’s had him, but he didn’t play him here and he sold him.

‘Having a conversation inside, I’m not against that, obviously he’s played for the manager. But I just felt at the end there’s something about it I didn’t feel was right from a Cole Palmer perspective.

‘I know why Pep Guardiola’s done it, that’s what Pep Guardiola does, but if I’d lost 3-1 away from home and had been as disappointed as I am and Cole Palmer, I expected more from him in the second half.’

Discussing Neville’s comments on The Dressing Room Podcast, Joe Cole questioned how his former England team-mate could be so critical without knowing all the details surrounding Palmer’s reunion with Guardiola.

‘I don’t understand what he’s saying. You don’t understand the relationship, you don’t know what makes Cole Palmer tick,’ Cole said.

‘Cole Palmer needs to play with freedom, so winning or losing probably hurt Gary Neville and that’s how he reacted, “I’ll go within myself, within my shell, I don’t want to speak to anyone and I’ll punish myself”, and I sort of think that was more expected of us from our generation.

‘But with Cole Palmer… think of all the Brazilians you played with. You’d almost think that they didn’t care. They were like lions on the pitch but they had this ability to switch off afterwards and go, “Right, where we going tonight?”, and that’s fine.’

Former Chelsea and England full-back Wayne Bridge, meanwhile, accused Neville of ‘jumping’ on Palmer despite having zero knowledge of what was being said during the exchange.

‘I get where Gary Neville is coming from because you’ve just lost, but you also don’t know what is being said,’ Bridge chimed in.

‘You don’t know how Cole Palmer is feeling after that game.

‘He’s probably annoyed that they lost, he probably was, but you’re just jumping because of one thing you’ve seen and you don’t know what’s been said.’

Bridge added: ‘Do you know what? I just love Cole Palmer. I just think he’s a breath of fresh air… the way he plays, the way he carries himself.

‘I always say he looks like he’s very relaxed, he’s playing on the park. I think a lot of people can take that away from him.

‘You play better when you’re doing that. If you’ve got too much on your shoulders in can affect your game.

‘That’s one thing I love about him and I was so disappointed he never played more for England at the Euros.’

Concluding the segment, Carlton Cole argued that Palmer had been criticised ‘a little too harshly’ before encouraging the youngster not to ‘let people put you down’.

‘He gets bums off seats, you can see something’s going to happen. That’s what people pay to watch,’ the ex-West Ham and England striker said.

‘Look, I think he’s been called out there a little bit too harshly, to summarise it up.

‘Listen, Cole Palmer, be yourself, don’t let people put you down and just do you.’

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