Chelsea Could Start A Trend By Leaving Cole Palmer At Home

Chelsea’s Cole Palmer was the star of last season for the Blues, but it is unlikely his skills will be seen in European competition this season.

Palmer won’t be on the plane to Greece, Germany or Kazakhstan this season as he has been left out of Chelsea’s UEFA Europa Conference League squad.

He could theoretically be added to the squad in January, but whatever happens, he won’t play European soccer again in 2024.

Premier League teams often leave their star players out of matchday squads for the group stages of European competitions, opting to blood their young players in these theoretically easier and lower-stakes games, and save their stars for Premier League games and the latter stages of European competitions later in the season. But it is rare that a key player is left completely off the squad list submitted to UEFA at the start of the competition.

Part of the reason for this is that Chelsea has a huge squad and feels it can compete in the Conference League without its star player. Chelsea’s squad for the Conference League still includes the likes of Jadon Sancho, Noni Madueke, Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku. That should be more than enough to get past the likes of Irish side Shamrock Rovers or Armenia’s FC Noah.

Another reason though is that the amount of soccer matches Chelsea and Palmer could potentially play this season is too high, and that without a rest earlier in the season, Palmer could burn out before the crucial games at the end of the campaign.

Last season was the first season Palmer has played regularly in his career, playing more than 4,000 minutes for club and country, compared to less than 900 senior minutes while at Manchester City the season before. He also went to the UEFA 2024 European Championship with England, scoring in the final against Spain, so had little time this summer to recover from that first full season. Next summer, he won’t get a rest either, as Chelsea are playing in the FIFA Club World Cup.

With more elite players such as Kevin De Bruyne speaking out over the number of games they have to play though, Palmer’s omission from Chelsea’s Conference League squad could be the start of a trend.

Only a small number of players, those who play for their national teams and are at clubs that reach the latter stages of European competitions, play the number of games De Bruyne is talking about, with his Manchester City teammate Rodri playing more than 5,000 minutes last season. Even so, players’ unions are taking legal action to try and reduce the number of games in the soccer calendar.

But UEFA and FIFA can’t force clubs to select certain players. Even competitions that punish clubs for playing weakened sides have to take into account player injuries and fatigue.

So rather than seeing what happens in the courts, clubs like Chelsea could start taking the matter into their own hands.

Clearly, Chelsea views the Conference League as quite low down its list of priorities, otherwise the club would have selected Palmer in its squad.

In the coming seasons, especially when there isn’t a full summer break, we could see more clubs follow Chelsea’s lead. Players too could have clauses into their contract stipulating a maximum number of games or removing themselves for selection for “lesser” competitions.

Soccer players aren’t like regular employees who need unions to fight their battles. Senior elite players already have enough money to allow them to say “no” to extra work. Many already “retire” from international duty early.

In the coming seasons, we could see more star players left out of certain competitions entirely as clubs become more open about managing their players’ workloads, refusing to play their best players unless the competition is lucrative enough.

It appears that for Chelsea at least, the UEFA Conference League is not that lucrative.