England fans baffled by Cole Palmer winning men's Player of the Year

England fans were left shocked and confused when Cole Palmer was named Men's Player of the Year last night.

The prestigious gong has been won in each of the last two years by Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, but Palmer’s exploits following his breakthrough last November saw him win the public vote.

While Palmer’s rise from fringe player at Manchester City to one of the stars of the Premier League has been a remarkable story, his impact at international level, due to no fault of his own, has been somewhat limited.

Despite incessant calls to give him a greater role in the side that reached the final of Euro 2024, Gareth Southgate used Palmer sparingly across last summer’s tournament.

Indeed, Palmer failed to start a single game at the Euros but still provided one of the abiding memories of the calendar year with his equaliser in the final against Spain.

In fairness, despite England reaching another major final, the likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden were not at their best in Germany, while Palmer’s swagger, invention and throwback style caught the imagination.

Still, many England fans were left confused at how a player who was essentially used as an impact substitute could have been bestowed with such a prestigious honour.

Cole Palmer is your England Men’s Player of the Year connected by @EE 👏

Congratulations, Cole! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/wKMsOZaiT6

‘On what basis?’ asked one fan ‘Good player yet hardly played. Jump on a bandwagon and ride it. Ridiculous choice.’

Another added: ‘Player of the year without starting a competitive game? This is nonsense my boy Jude Bellingham was robbed.’

And a third supporter said: ‘Every real football fan knows he doesn’t deserve the award more than Saka.’

Palmer, meanwhile, has made a stellar start to the new Premier League campaign and became the first player in the competition’s history to score four goals in the first half of a game during the recent win over Brighton.

2003 – David Beckham (Manchester United)
2004 – Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
2005 – Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
2006 – Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich)
2007 – Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
2008 – Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2009 – Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2010 – Ashley Cole (Chelsea)
2011 – Scott Parker (Tottenham Hotspur)
2012 – Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
2014 – Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2015 – Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
2016 – Adam Lallana (Liverpool)
2017 – Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
2018 – Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
2019 – Jordan Henderson (Liverpool)
2020-21 – Kalvin Phillips (Leeds United)
2021-22 – Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
2022-23 – Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
2023-24 – Cole Palmer (Chelsea)

Despite his outstanding form, the 22-year-old still isn’t nailed on to start in his favourite position for England given the level of competition.

Interim boss Lee Carsley even suggested last week that he would consider Palmer as an option to play as a makeshift left-back in order to fit him into his team.

‘Yeah, he (Alexander-Arnold) can play there,’ Carsley said.

‘Bukayo can play there, Cole can play there, so there’s quite a few. Obviously you want to get the best out of them in their most natural positions.

‘We know if we play a right-footed player there, at left-back, that we’re going to have to build differently and be creative in the way we set up, I think if you’re asking a right-footed player to play high and wide and playing too high and wide, it can be sometimes a little bit predictable.

‘It’s important that we aren’t predictable, that we’ve got different ways of attacking and I think with the players we’ve got we can also swap the players over the wide players so they are on their natural sides just to give the opposition something different to think about.’