Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has hinted that the club could offer Cole Palmer a new contract at Stamford Bridge.
Palmer signed for Chelsea in a £42m deal from Manchester City last summer and has emerged as one of the signings of the Premier League season.
The 21-year-old has scored 13 league goals and laid on eight assists, becoming only the fifth Chelsea player to reach 20+ Premier League goal involvements in their debut campaign at Stamford Bridge.
Despite signing a long-term deal only last summer, Pochettino has suggested Chelsea could look to reward Palmer’s performances and growing influence with an improved deal.
“He is a player that is doing well [Palmer]. He has signed a five, six or seven year contract. I don’t know, I am not aware [but] I have no worries that the club believe they need to compensate or reward a player. For sure the club is going to do,” Pochettino said at his pre-match press conference, ahead of facing Manchester United.
“He [Palmer] is playing football, that is why we bring him. He is an incredible player doing well but always the idea when we sign a player is to perform the way he is performing.”
Pochettino was speaking on Palmer after academy graduate Alfie Gilchrist signed a new deal this week. The Argentine said he was delighted to see the defender commit his future to Chelsea.
“Look, it’s good for the player who came from the academy. You can see how he feels the shirt and badge. I congratulate him [Gilchrist] for the new contract.”
Pochettino is hoping his team can bounce back from a disappointing draw with Burnley at the weekend and said Chelsea must improve the ‘body language’ shown during a poor performance.
“We were talking a lot during the game, and after the game, during these few days. I agree with you on the body language. We see it ourselves from the beginning of the game. We are Chelsea, but we need to behave like Chelsea, we need to behave like we want to belong to a big club.
“It’s not an excuse to be a young or inexperienced player. We need to defend our badge and to play for our club and to perform. We need to perform. I try to describe after the game in my press conference our feelings and I think in the next few days, I started to realise here in the training ground in the day after. We talk about potentially amazing players, when we talk about big players, they are young and need to realise they need to improve so quick.
“There is not time to improve in one year or two years because the demand is so high from the Premier League and from the club. I think it was a good week to talk about body language, energy, the capacity to deal with the pressure, perform better, to step up. We can find excuses but we need to perform tomorrow and we are going to be the same guys on the pitch. That is the squad we have. They need to say we are here, we have character and show we deserve to be playing at this amazing club. The fans will behind us if we do that.”
Read – Pochettino condemns online abuse of Chelsea’s Gallagher
See more – The Chelsea players to reach 20 goal involvements in their debut season
