Cole Palmer has missed out on the Three Lions for the World Cup, and the timing has drawn new attention to Chelsea’s decision to send Nicolas Jackson to Bayern Munich on loan in the final hours of the summer transfer window. Former Chelsea winger Florent Malouda thinks Palmer may be feeling that absence at Stamford Bridge.
That is why Palmer is being searched now: a major England omission has landed just after Chelsea moved Jackson out, and the two events have been linked in the same conversation. Thomas Tuchel, the former Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund coach now in charge of the Three Lions, is the man who left Palmer out, which only sharpened the scrutiny around the midfielder’s recent form and Chelsea’s attack.
Malouda’s view is straightforward. He said Palmer might be missing Jackson at Chelsea, while also pointing out that Palmer and Joao Pedro have a good connection. “We saw it when João Pedro first arrived,” Malouda said. He added that Palmer needs a target player who lets him arrive in the box at the right time, and someone who gives him a proper link-up option with the number nine.
He also argued that Palmer needs more variation in his own game. That could mean free-kicks, or another way to score and influence matches, so that he can have more freedom up front. In Malouda’s words, it is all very dependent on how opponents are building systems to handle the way Palmer threatens them, and he called that the next step for the Chelsea attacker.
Still, it seems like a big stretch to say Palmer’s England omission came because Jackson was loaned away. Chelsea were trying to unload Jackson last summer, and Bayern did not take him until the final hours of the window, but that does not by itself explain a Three Lions selection call. What the move does do is put a spotlight on the chemistry around Palmer, who may now have to prove he can carry the same threat with or without a target striker beside him.
The immediate question is whether Palmer can fix that link-up issue quickly enough to change the conversation around both his Chelsea role and his place with England. For now, the loan to Bayern has become part of the debate, but not the answer.
