2-YEAR PEP TALK BUT COLE STILL WANTED TO LEAVE US
PEP GUARDIOLA has revealed how he spent two seasons pleading with Cole Palmer not to leave Manchester City.
The Spanish boss knows he must now find a way to stop the England sensation if he wants to keep City’s double dream alive.
Palmer stunned the Premier league champions last summer when he walked out on them to join Chelsea in a £40million deal.
The midfielder has gone on to make a stunning impact at Stamford Bridge, scoring 22 goals in all competitions to become Mauricio Pochettino’s most influential star.
and he will look to make a mockery of City’s decision to sell him when he faces his former club in today’s Fa Cup semi-final showdown at Wembley.
Guardiola insists he did everything in his power to persuade Palmer to remain at the Etihad. He said: “He’s an exceptional player. We knew this when he was here.
“He’s a nice guy, a shy guy, with a lot of confidence, and he’s playing fantastically well.
“But he was asking for two seasons to leave.
“I said, ‘no, stay’ but he still said, ‘no, I want to leave.’ What can I say?
“Cole is the decisive player of the season. Playing that level is exceptional. But we travel to Wembley looking to win this game and will see what happens.”
The Treble winners have been left licking their wounds following their Champions league defeat to real Madrid on penalties in midweek.
To make matters worse, Guardiola has doubts over the fitness of key duo Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland for the semi-final.
But the City boss knows there is no time to sulk about being dumped out of Europe and admits they have no choice but to bounce back.
He said: “It is what it is but I prefer to play this game than stay at home and think of the next Premier league game.
“It’s better to be here, in this situation. There’s no time, we go there and try to compete and do our best.
“don’t feel sorry that we’re out (of Europe). Sometimes you lose games. We don’t have an option, we don’t want to feel bad for ourselves.
“We don’t have time to reflect, we’ll do that in the summer time.
“you compete to win but sometimes you lose games and that’s what happened.”
Guardiola, meanwhile, has thrown his backing behind Bernardo Silva in the wake of his shocking spot-kick miss in the defeat to real.
Silva has come under-fire after chipping his penalty straight into the hands of real goalkeeper andriy lunin.
But Guardiola insists the Portuguese midfielder has the strength of character to emerge stronger from the costly blunder. He added: “The guys who
take the penalties are heroes because not everyone can do it.
“He didn’t want to miss it but he showed responsibility in front of everyone. I would never judge him, completely the opposite. Big respect.”