Brighton interested in loan move for Manchester City wonderkid and England Under-21 star

According to Mail Sport, the Seagulls originally targeted a permanent deal for the attacking midfielder, but the current Premier League champions are reluctant to sell their academy graduate, preferring a season-long loan deal.

Palmer has recently been on international duty with the England Under-21s in Romania and Georgia. The attacking midfielder played a prominent role in helping the Young Lions win the competition for the first time in 39 years. In the semi-final rout against Israel, Palmer had a role in all three goals (one goal, two assists), before seeing his free-kick deflect off Curtis Jones in the final against Spain to seal the title with the only goal of the game.

Palmer joined City as a seven-year-old and has worked his way through the Cityzens’ youth system since 2010, captaining the under-18 side during the 2019–20 season. The youngster made his debut for the first-team in September 2020, coming off the bench in a 4-0 win over Burnley in the EFL Cup.

The following season, Palmer started to feature more prominently in Pep Guardiola’s first-team picture, making 11 appearances and scoring a goal in the Champions League, FA Cup and EFL Cup.

The City manager called his young player the ‘future of the club’, claiming he had a special quality that was ‘difficult to find’.

Despite this, Guardiola has refused to rush Palmer's development into his first-team, meaning the academy graduate spent the majority of last season's treble-winning campaign on the bench, making 25 appearances in total, eleven of which were from the starting team.

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A loan spell is seen by the City hierarchy as the best move for Palmer, with Brighton seemingly the perfect place for the future City star to learn his trade under the stewardship of Robeto De Zerbi.

Palmer predominately plays as an attacking left winger, but is also comfortable on the right flank or as a number 10.

Palmer’s versatility, close-controlled dribbling and devastating impact in the box will be something that interests the Brighton boss, as he looks to prepare his squad to compete in the Europa League for the first-time ever.