Chelsea already wants the season to end so it can begin the "rebuilding" of the team, a team that aimed to achieve great things in the first half of the season under coach Enzo Maresca and possibly its biggest star, Cole Palmer.

The English midfielder was likely living the best period of his career during the summer of 2025, being a standout in the Club World Cup, scoring a brace and providing an assist in that mythical final where they looked dominant against the recent Champions League champion, Paris Saint-Germain. Palmer finished the season with 18 goals and 14 assists, demonstrating his ability to be truly dangerous in the opponent's box.

What seemed destined to be a dream season began to enter a period of doubt little by little, culminating in the coach's firing in January 2026. Something that players and fans still do not fully understand to this day is that the team was not in a "crisis" or anything similar; it was in fifth place in the Premier League and sixth in the Champions League.

With the arrival of the new coach, Liam Rosenior, to Chelsea's bench, from the sister club Strasbourg, it seems the players' performance has gradually declined. At first, there were good results, but one could say they came with the rhythm of Maresca's playing style. When that began to fade and they started playing with Rosenior's style, the team went on a run of bad results.

Bad results that saw the team drop from fifth place in the Premier League (qualified for the Champions League) to ninth place, out of any European spot, and were also eliminated from the Champions League in a humiliating fashion against PSG, with an aggregate score of 2-8.

Each of these Chelsea collapses seemed to affect Palmer more and more, to the point that he has gone more than two months without contributing anything to the team; he has not scored or assisted since March 4.

It seems that the lack of motivation and the increasingly strong rumors of his possible departure from the club, in addition to physical wear and tear (after a few vacations last summer), have been taking their toll on the player, both mentally and physically.

The big question is: Will his current quality be enough for him to start for the England national team during the World Cup, or will he be relegated to the bench by Thomas Tuchel?

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