"The player who surprised me the most" – Chelsea legend on the current Blue he loves

Today at 02:35 PM

There have been a ton of comparisons recently between Cole Palmer and Chelsea's last great attacking genius, Eden Hazard.

But go back a generation before that and you've got another creative maestro pulling the strings, one even more beloved by Blues fans of a certain age. Gianfranco Zola felt like he was taking Chelsea into a new era and a new place in European football, and he will forever be the favourite of many Stamford Bridge go-ers.

So it was fitting to finally get the great man's thoughts on the wonderkid now taking up his mantle as the chief creative conductor in SW6. Palmer has thrilled us all, and Zola is no exception.

Zola hails genius Palmer after annus mirabilis

Speaking to the BBC, the little Sardinian gushed over Palmer and his languid brilliance:

"I'm very impressed with Palmer because he's doing amazing things and has been doing them for more than a season now," Zola explained.

"He's probably one of the players that has surprised me the most. I could see straight away that he had qualities, but I didn't see all of this coming. He has the ability to entertain. He always produces good passes and very good assists. What I love about him is when he receives the ball he is always looking up and many times he has the pass in mind before he receives the ball. This is a quality only the really big players have. I'm impressed."

That's certainly one thing we've been enjoying ourselves – the consistency Palmer has shown to keep this up for over a year. None of us really believed he could continue at the rate he started at, but with a year now gone by he shows no signs of slowing down, and even the most pessimistic Chelsea fan has to accept we might have an all time club great on our hands.