You got it wrong’ – Gary Neville calls out Pep Guardiola over Man City transfer decision

You got it wrong’ – Gary Neville calls out Pep Guardiola over Man City transfer decision

Gary Neville has named Chelsea winger Cole Palmer as his Young Player of the Year and questioned why Manchester City allowed him to leave the club in the summer.

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has criticised Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola for his decision to let Chelsea sign Cole Palmer during the summer.

The 22-year-old made a £42.5m move to Stamford Bridge at the start of the season after expressing his desire for regular first-team football and rejecting the notion of a loan move away from the Etihad Stadium. Guardiola, known for allowing players to leave if they wish, permitted Palmer’s transfer to Chelsea.

Since relocating to London, the forward has proven his worth by scoring 26 goals in all competitions and providing 14 assists. During the Monday Night Football end-of-season awards, Neville named Palmer as his Young Player of the Year and confessed that Guardiola had misjudged the situation.

When they [Chelsea] signed him, I just thought they have so many wide players and so many players who are in those positions,” Neville explained. “They had so much talent and I didn’t think anybody would have thought that the goals and the output coming from him would have been anything like it has.

“Honestly, massive surprise that he has got to the level he has. What a player.

You do ask the big question, how can Manchester City have ever let that player go? As many good players they have got, you think they have got [Jeremy] Doku, and Bernardo Silva is not going to go on forever, he would be the perfect replacement for a Bernardo Silva in playing between that midfield and wide player.”

Jamie Carragher commended Guardiola for allowing a player to move on rather than keeping him as a potential successor to Bernardo, but Neville suggested it showed a lack of foresight from the Spanish manager. “We have eulogised over Pep Guardiola for years on this programme, you can never criticise him, but you are allowed to say he got one wrong or Manchester City got one wrong,” he asserted.

“If you have known a player who has been at the club since the age of 10, you know his talent, you don’t let one of your own go if they are that good. If they have got it wrong and don’t think he’s that good, hold your hands up and say he’s shocked us and that’s fair enough.

They have got it wrong in one of two ways. They have not given him a chance and not created a pathway for him, or, they have thought he is not that good.”