SYDNEY \u2013 Chelsea\u2019s Cole Palmer says he is fired up for the upcoming Premier League season and has a point to prove after being left out of the England squad for the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Palmer, who was omitted from Thomas Tuchel\u2019s squad after an injury-marred season, said he was \u201cnot too bothered\u201d about getting back in the England frame, but that missing the World Cup would fuel his motivation to shine in the new campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaturally it\u2019s going to,\u201d the 24-year-old midfielder told reporters on July 31 ahead of Aug 1\u2019s pre-season friendly in Sydney against Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like anything. If someone told you you\u2019re essentially not good enough to get in the squad, then you\u2019re gonna think, all right, it\u2019s like whatever then, and try and go that extra bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back with a positive mindset<\/p>\n
New Chelsea coach Xabi Alonso said Palmer had returned from the break with a very positive mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to be a leader on the pitch. The better the Cole we have, the better Chelsea we will have, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d the Spaniard said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think that having a proper training and having a proper preparation, it\u2019s going to be important for him. And you see he\u2019s really focused on that. And we are connected. We are getting each other and so far I like his personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer said he had been bored after six weeks of his long off-season layoff and was looking forward to linking up with Morgan Rogers, who joined Chelsea last week in a deal reported by British media to be worth \u00a3117 million (S$202 million).<\/p>\n
The midfield pair are close friends from their days in the Manchester City academy and Palmer said he had known about Rogers\u2019 switch before anybody outside top Chelsea management.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a difficult secret to keep, but I kept it,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows how good he is, and obviously he\u2019s one of my best friends. So I\u2019m very happy about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re two different players. He\u2019s more physical than me, on and off the ball. He likes to drive with it. I like to play passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, I think we can play well together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer was asked about his signature goal celebration, where he crosses his arms and rubs his hands down his shoulders as if shivering.<\/p>\n
After Palmer made it famous, it later emerged he had copied it from Rogers when they played together as youngsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does it. I do it. I\u2019ve trademarked it. So if he tries to do anything, you know, bailiffs at his door,\u201d Palmer joked.<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, we\u2019ll do it together I think.\u201d REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY \u2013 Chelsea\u2019s Cole Palmer says he is fired up for the upcoming Premier League season and has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-568440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}