ROMAL HAS SIGHTS SET ON REUNION WITH FODEN
CHAMPIONSHIP BARNSLEY V SWANSEA SATURDAY, 3PM
BARNSLEY’S Romal Palmer once played alongside Phil Foden for Manchester City but nearly quit the game after getting rejected by his boyhood heroes.
Now the midfielder could be lining up against his old pal in the Premier League next season having resurrected his career with Barnsley.
The Tykes are the surprise package in this season’s Championship playoffs and host Swansea in their semi-final first leg on Monday night, before the return tie six days later.
For 22-year-old Palmer it is a far cry from getting the boot from City as a 16-year-old, after being on the club’s books for a decade.
‘It was hard to take,’ admits Palmer, who comes from nearby Wigan.
‘I thought I would be hysterical but it was more afterwards when I digested it and I realised I wouldn’t be going back there when all my life had been dedicated to that club.’
After trials with Blackburn and Fulham proved fruitless, Palmer signed up for college. ‘I was ready to accept my fate,’ he admits.
But coming out of lessons one day he got a call from Barnsley and turned up for a session only to find his fellow youth players lacking enthusiasm.
‘I said to my mum I don’t want to go back,’ he recalls. ‘ Credit to my mum, she said stick at it. The club said they would look after me and they really have. It is the best decision I have ever made. It’s been amazing.’
A loan spell at Darlington toughened him up and since returning he has been a regular in a campaign that has seen one of the relegation favourites surge into the play-offs.
Palmer is not surprised. ‘ Training with these lads every day you can see the quality. But I don’t think anyone else was thinking we would do so well,’ he says.
He recalls a pre-season meeting under former manager Gerhard Struber. ‘ People were saying just avoid relegation but I was thinking that was quite negative.’
But the mentality changed d when new boss Valerien Ismael l walked in the door in October.
‘Valerien has made it so clear r about how he wants us to play, y, everyone knows what they y need to do,’ adds Palmer. ‘We all ll bought into it and that’s why we e have had such a great season. n. Everyone is on the same page.
‘Valerien’s mindset rubs off on everyone. When we were mid-table and the points were just narrowing to the playoffs, you do think “Well, why can’t we reach that and shock everyone”, and that’s what we did.
‘No one was really aware of what we were capable of doing and they might have underestimated us.
‘I feel like we did get a bit of respect halfway through the season when those teams which like to pass it around came up against our high press and changed their game plans.’
That did not stop Barnsley from finishing in the top six, though, and Palmer cannot hide his excitement at the possibility of reaching the final. ‘It’s every young lad’s dream to play at Wembley,’ he says.
‘Knowing that’s so close to grasp, it just fills you with a drive to get there.
‘All the things I have been through – getting released, being in college and having a lifeline of coming to Barnsley, never assuming I would be in a position to be playing in the play-offs – but here we are.
‘You have to grasp the moment with both hands and take it.
‘I honestly think if Barnsley were to go up we would make a good go of it. If the investment is right then it can be a sustainable Premier League team. Our stadium is lovely.’ And if he wins promotion Palmer would love to renew his acquaintance with Foden, admitting: ‘It was a joy to play with Phil. He had that understanding of the game at such a young age.
‘At the academy level players can doubt themselves. With him it has always been “I know I am the best”.’
Palmer credits his own success to his single-parent mum Tracie Farquharson who spent countless nights shuttling from working in Manchester to pick him up in Wigan and take him back to the city for training.
‘She was working so many hours, it’s unbelievable,’ he says. ‘It has not been easy, a single mum on a council estate.
‘It seems a bit cliched but that’s just how it is. I see other players and their story is quite similar to mine.
‘Without her I would not be here contemplating playing at a Wembley final.’