His output did, however, dip last season and injury struggles have been endured in 2025-26. With that in mind, Leboeuf – speaking in association with ToonieBet – told GOAL when asked if Palmer is destined for another high-profile transfer at some point: “If you are Cole Palmer, do you want to play for Real Madrid? Where are you going to play? You have Jude Bellingham, so many others. You have to make the right choice. You have to think twice.
“Okay, I want to be at the best club in the world – maybe Real Madrid are the best club in the world – but you want to play, you don’t want to be on the bench. That doesn’t make any sense.
“We talked about [Florian] Wirtz going to Bayern Munich last season, but there was [Jamal] Musiala there – you can’t play with Musiala and Wirtz, unless you put Wirtz on the left, which is possible, but it was the right choice for Wirtz to go to Liverpool. Nobody expected it would go how it is right now.
“Cole Palmer has had a two-year career. City didn’t want to keep him, he was a real surprise, fantastic player, but slow down, you play for Chelsea Football Club and you can get something out of it. You never know, maybe you are at the right club. Maybe something will happen to Chelsea.
“Who would have thought that [Frank] Lampard would have the career he did when he came to Chelsea? Maybe a bit, but not that crazy. I remember being at Chelsea in ‘99 when Real Madrid called me and I said: ‘I’m staying there, I love the club, they are great, the football is great, the fans are great, so why would I go there? I know what I have and what I would get’. Again, you have to think twice.
“For the fame, maybe it is better to go to Real Madrid when you are at Chelsea, but I’m not even sure about that anymore. What we see at Real Madrid, they are not the best of the best right now. Maybe they are going to come back because it’s a big club, but it’s not right now – you are talking about history, not the present time.”
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