Carlton Palmer has said that one Manchester City player has proved Pep Guardiola wrong.
During his eight seasons at the Manchester club, the 53-year-old has coached 87 players in total, several of whom have played significant roles in City’s success under the Spaniard.
Now though, with the Blues just a few games away from potentially winning a fourth Premier League title in a row, one pundit has claimed that one of City’s key players from this season has proved his worth to Guardiola.
Palmer says Man City player has made Guardiola change his mind
Speaking in a recent episode of The World Class Stamp Podcast, Palmer had this to say about Kyle Walker when discussing the upcoming Euros and how he could deal with the likes of Kylian Mbappe if England were to come up against France in the tournament.
He said: “We’ve seen Mbappe, and we’ve seen Kyle Walker can take care of Mbappe. That’s not a problem.
“Kyle Walker is like a fine wine. He’s been absolutely brilliant.
“Considering the manager left him out the side, told him he couldn’t play that inverted position, and this is what top players do, this is what top, top players do.
“He could have gone. He could have just gone, I can walk into any other team. He went, no, I’m going to wait for my time, and I’m going to show you that I can play that inverted role.
“He’s not only done that, he’s had the captain’s armband, and then he’s gone on to get another two-year contract.
“And he’s won every honour in the game, he’s earned a fortune out of the game, right? And that’s what it’s about to be. I want to play at this football club.
“You heard what the manager said. He couldn’t play in that position, and he’s proved him wrong.”
Kyle Walker is vital for Man City
As Palmer spoke about, Guardiola did say that Walker was unable to do certain tasks that other defenders in the squad, at that point, could do, mainly playing as an inverted full-back.
A few months after that, the 33-year-old looked to be on the brink of leaving City and joining Bayern Munich during the previous summer transfer window.
However, after a dramatic U-turn, the Englishman stayed at City and then put pen to paper on a new contract, as Palmer also mentioned.
Since then, the City captain has gone on to feature in 42 games for the Blues this season across all competitions, highlighting how important he is for the team.
While Walker may not have proved his manager wrong in terms of his ability to play an inverted role, we feel that he has still been able to show just how valuable he is for the team, based on his physical qualities and the personality he has in the dressing room, both of which were highlighted by Guardiola last summer.