Football Legend Kaka Heaps Praise on Chelsea First Team Player

Although the World Cup is now up and running, and there is plenty of excitement all over the world, there will only be 11 Chelsea players at the tournament, and that includes loanees Kendry Paez and Nicolas Jackson. 

A number of players were overlooked by their national team bosses. The likes of Robert Sanchez (Spain), Levi Colwill (England), Alejandro Garnacho (Argentina), Joao Pedro (Brazil), and so on and so forth. 

One more player who was overlooked - perhaps the most notably alongside Pedro - was Cole Palmer, with the 24-year old not included in England's squad by former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, despite there also being no room for Phil Foden and Morgan Gibbs-White. His form, or lack of, could simply not be overlooked in the end.

Despite this, Brazilian legend Kaka had lots of praise for the number ten. When asked by Rio Ferdinand who his favourite England player is, he was quick to answer with Palmer: "I like his style. It's because for me, football was a really simple way to think. 'I need to get the ball and take it to that place'.  

I think Palmer has a little bit of that. It's very simple for him. It's just take the ball and go towards (the goal), let's go. So, I like the way he plays."  

Wow, some very high praise from a football legend, and from someone who played in the same (or a similar) position to him, even more so. He could have easily said one of the players in the squad for this summer's World Cup. 

It's such a shame that his development has stunted so much in the past 18 months. He was incredible in 23/24 under Mauricio Pochettino, and for the first six months under Enzo Maresca, with the first half quadruple at home to Brighton and Hove Albion, including a free kick, the standout and the time where you felt like he was at the peak of his powers. 

Some have said that, since the Pochettino muscle memory wore off, Palmer has gradually declined. It has been said he is not a fan of Maresca's positional style of play. He said after the UEFA Conference League final that he was sick of passing sidewards and backwards, and took the game into his own hands. This was almost certainly a dig. 

It was not lost on the fanbase that he did not post a goodbye message to the Italian on social media after his departure. Let's hope that a full pre season under new manager Xabi Alonso will serve him well. There is no reason why it shouldn't. And from there, well we have seen what Alonso was able to do with Florian Wirtz. Let's see if he can do the same, or similar, with Palmer.