Paul Merson's Surprising Prediction for Cole Palmer and scathing criticism of Chelsea's nine-year contract offer

Paul Merson has boldly predicted that Cole Palmer's card is marked and that the Chelsea star will find it challenging to replicate his incredible form from last season.

The England international enjoyed a remarkable debut campaign at Stamford Bridge in 2023/24, scoring 25 goals and making 15 assists across all competitions.

Chelsea’s hierarchy were clearly impressed, opting to give their talisman a new nine-year contract on improved terms, despite the fact that he still had seven years left to run on his old deal.

The attacking midfielder will be expected to deliver the goods again in the upcoming campaign with the Blues taking on Palmer’s boyhood club Manchester City on Sunday.

But Merson is not confident that the 22-year-old will be able to live up to the hype, believing that every rival team will now know to focus on stopping Palmer from doing his thing.

‘He’s had an unbelievable season and he is a good player but this season every [opposition] team talk is going to be “Stop Cole Palmer playing”,’ the Arsenal legend said on .

‘He’s got that now the whole time. And now you’re giving him a nine-year contract?

‘I’m not sure [he will score 15 goals]. Last season he was unreal. This season he is marked.

‘We’ve seen it a million times, like with [Emmanuel] Adebayor. He ripped it up at Arsenal, got a new contract and was marked.

‘It’s going to be hard. If he gets 15 goals next season I’ll be like “wow, fair play to you”. 15 is a lot of goals.’

Merson also did not hold back when discussing Palmer’s new contract, slamming Chelsea over their policy for handing out extremely long deals, something that has become rife since Todd Boehly’s takeover.

‘It can’t be a better deal for the club. They don’t know what they’re doing,’ he added.

‘I’m not being horrible but how can you tell what he [Palmer] is going [to be like] in nine years’ time.

‘I like him but they’re giving these players six, seven, eight year contracts. Some of them don’t even play, don’t even get in the team. That’s one of the reasons Conor Gallagher’s going because he only got offered two years.

‘You know [Joao] Cancelo, three years ago at Man City he took the game to another level. One year later he was literally gone from Man City.

‘You can’t tell what these players are going to be like in six, seven years’ time.’

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