When it comes to Cole Palmer, a montage of magical moments spring to Brian Barry-Murphy\u2019s mind, but one episode, a little more than four years ago, particularly sticks. Barry-Murphy was in charge of Manchester City\u2019s under-21s on the evening when Palmer \u2013 fresh from replacing Bernardo Silva as an 89th-minute substitute in a 2-0 Premier League win against Burnley \u2013 strolled across the bridge at the Etihad Campus and reported for duty at the academy stadium, scoring a sensational hat-trick in a 5-0 victory over Leicester.<\/p>\n
It is a story Barry-Murphy, now in charge of the League One leaders, Cardiff, recounts given Palmer could be in the opposition team when Chelsea visit in the Carabao Cup<\/a> quarter-finals on Tuesday. \u201cHe said to Pep [Guardiola] and [his former assistant] Rodolfo Borrell the day before the game: \u2018There\u2019s an under-21 game tomorrow night, if I don\u2019t get on, can I play?\u2019\u201d Barry-Murphy says with a smile.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a picture of him waiting to come on [against Burnley] and turning to Guardiola: \u2018Can I still go and play?\u2019 A lot of players would view coming back to the under-21s as a drop down. But he just wanted to play.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many times I saw him FaceTime his family and friends, telling them what he was going to do and, more often than not, he would do it. In those games, he would pick up the ball and go past five, six players. He made me look like a really good coach.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first went into Manchester City it was like the Harlem Globetrotters: Palmer, [Rom\u00e9o] Lavia, [James] McAtee, Oscar Bobb, Liam Delap \u2026 my first game in charge of the under-21s, I remember looking around the dressing room thinking: these guys are worth zillions. You have to coach them in a way that makes them believe in what you\u2019re going to say and do.\u201d<\/p>\n Barry-Murphy succeeded Enzo Maresca in 2021, when the Italian left for Parma, but worked closely when Maresca returned to join City\u2019s first-team staff for 2022-23, the season they won the Champions League<\/a> for the first time and completed a historic treble. Around this time last year Barry-Murphy visited Chelsea to catch up with Maresca and his assistant Danny Walker, whom the Cardiff head coach worked alongside when with City\u2019s under-21s.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel as if I know Enzo really well,\u201d he says. \u201cI replaced Enzo, but when he came back to work with Pep during those 12 months we spent a lot of time together and I watched them coach a lot. When you work in an environment like that with such a strong figurehead it can be quite intimidating to coach and give your opinion because of who it is, but he [Maresca] was willing to share strong opinions with the boss and Pep loves that.<\/p>\n Cole Palmer still wanted to play for Manchester City\u2019s under-21s while breaking into the first team. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not always easy to do. At a place like City you can stay in the background for 10, 15 years, but Mikel [Arteta] left to test himself, Enzo wanted to do the same, and I looked at those guys as role models. You can stay, but Pep was always pretty strong on \u2018keep pushing\u2019 and look for different things. That\u2019s probably why he\u2019s so respectful of Mikel and Enzo.\u201d<\/p>\n Barry-Murphy decided to leave City last year and in the summer, after six months assisting Ruud van Nistelrooy at Leicester, he returned to the frontline with Cardiff. Of his decision to leave City and Guardiola, he says: \u201cI\u2019d been there for enough time to learn so much from him, but in the last six months of my last season I felt like I had been doing the same thing for quite a while.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile every single day when you go into work with a guy like him you\u2019ll learn something new, for me it wasn\u2019t enough because I wanted to see if I could put my ideas to the test again and go and work somewhere else. Essentially, I looked for the thrill of being tested.\u201d<\/p>\n