I am sure Pep Guardiola has admitted he made £42m Man City transfer mistake
Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have made mistakes in letting their academy talents leave in recent seasons.
That is the view of former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder Emmanuel Petit, who even believes Guardiola would have told Palmer it was a mistake from City to sell him to Chelsea. City have developed a reputation for developing academy talents and selling them on for healthy transfer fees across the last few seasons.
A lot of them have gone on to have some success away from the Etihad Stadium as well. Just this season Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis scored on his England debut, while Liam Delap has scored eight goals for Ipswich Town in the Premier League this term. But the most notable example was the decision to sell Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5million in the summer of 2023.
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Palmer was impressing on the fringes of City's first team during their treble winning 2022/23 campaign but was keen to move on and get regular football elsewhere. Since joining Chelsea, he has become an England international and was named PFA Fans' Player of the Year and PFA Young Player of the Year last term.
Palmer bagged 25 goals and 15 assists in all competitions last season and already has 13 goals and six assists to his name this season. With City's support cast struggling to support Erling Haaland with regular goals this term, the decision to allow Palmer looks worse by the week and Petit feels Guardiola will share those sentiments.
"Pep Guardiola will know that he and Manchester City have made mistakes in letting their academy talents leave," Petit told DisCasino. "Because their current squad was winning so much, the collapse came so suddenly and some of the stars of the team need fresh blood to play with.
"Manchester City have won a couple of games, Erling Haaland has scored a couple of goals, Kevin De Bruyne is playing regularly and Phil Foden is getting involved in goals again. "Manchester City have learned from their mistakes of letting the likes of Palmer go. When Chelsea played them, I saw Guardiola speak to Palmer and I'm sure he said to him 'It was a mistake to let you go'."
