{"id":322269,"date":"2026-04-21T17:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=322269"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:48:54","slug":"paul-merson-would-not-be-surprised-if-chelsea-star-joins-man-utd-this-summer-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/paul-merson-would-not-be-surprised-if-chelsea-star-joins-man-utd-this-summer-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Merson ‘would not be surprised’ if Chelsea star joins Man Utd this summer | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Merson sees a bleak end of the season for Chelsea (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul Merson \u2018wouldn\u2019t be surprised\u2019 to see Cole Palmer lining up for Manchester United next season \u2013 but believes Chelsea will hold onto Enzo Fernandez this summer.<\/p>\n

The Blues suffered their fourth Premier League defeat in a row on Saturday night up against United to mark the club\u2019s worst losing sequence without scoring a single goal for the primary time since 1998.<\/p>\n

That woeful run of form has damaged Chelsea\u2019s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season, sat seven points behind fifth place Liverpool.<\/p>\n

With their deal with the FA Cup this weekend, Chelsea could drop to as little as 11th<\/sup> place before the week is out if the perimeters below them pick up victories.<\/p>\n

Failure to qualify for the Champions League could raise serious questions over the futures of various first-team stars with Fernandez already flirting with the potential of a summer exit.<\/p>\n

Palmer has been strongly linked with a move to Old Trafford in recent months and despite the England international insisting he’s blissful in west London, Merson sees a move happening.<\/p>\n

\u2018No Champions League football will probably be a kick within the teeth for Chelsea,\u2019 Merson wrote in his column for Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"LONDON,\t<\/div>
Palmer has been linked with a return to Manchester (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Do you think that Cole Palmer will probably be at Chelsea playing within the Europa Conference League? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n

\u2018Manchester United will get into the Champions League, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he was playing there next season.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t see Enzo Fernandez leaving though. Where is he going? Nobody\u2019s paying \u00a3100m for him. And Chelsea aren\u2019t going to just accept a loss on him.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s lots that should be done at Chelsea. They need a centre-forward, badly. They need a goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

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United could have Champions League football back on offer next season (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018They\u2019ve got some good defensive midfielders in Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Andrey Santos \u2013 but they need one other player in there with a bit more guile.\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite talk of being unsettled in London, Palmer insisted last week he’s blissful with life within the capital.<\/p>\n

Everyone just talks,\u2019 Palmer told\u00a0The Guardian<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Once I see it I just laugh. Obviously Manchester is my home. All my family are there, but I don\u2019t miss it. Possibly I\u2019ll miss it if I don\u2019t go for 3 months or something. But then after I get home I feel there\u2019s nothing there for me anyway.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve got no plans to maneuver from Chelsea. We\u2019ve still got lots to play for. We\u2019ve got the\u00a0FA Cup<\/strong>\u00a0semi-final and if we finish in a\u00a0Champions League<\/strong>\u00a0spot it puts us in position to sign players that we want.<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Bernardo Silva next club odds after Man City star\u2019s masterclass against Arsenal<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Chelsea urged to make shock offer to sign \u2018amazing\u2019 Manchester City legend<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Man Utd to launch \u00a335m offer to sign \u2018the brand new Estevao\u2019 ahead of Man City and Arsenal<\/span><\/p>\n

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Merson sees a bleak end of the season for Chelsea (Picture: Getty) Paul Merson \u2018wouldn\u2019t be surprised\u2019 to see Cole Palmer lining up for Manchester United next season \u2013 but believes Chelsea will hold onto Enzo Fernandez this summer. The Blues suffered their fourth Premier League defeat in a row on Saturday night up against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[1289,5479,1248,1054,23627,4546,795,4319,8346,20687,8745],"class_list":["post-322269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-chelsea","tag-football","tag-joins","tag-man","tag-merson","tag-paul","tag-star","tag-summer","tag-surprised","tag-utd","tag-wouldnt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322272,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322269\/revisions\/322272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}