Leicester City links to Chelsea star currently ripping it up look more ridiculous by the week: View | OneFootball

Chelsea ace Cole Palmer has been one of the biggest stars in the Premier League this season, and could be knocking on the door of Gareth Southgate's England starting 11 come EURO 2024 this summer if he is able to maintain his current vein of form.

The 21-year-old scored his first ever hat-trick in senior football to seal a dramatic 4-3 win for the Blues against Manchester United last Thursday, which included strikes in the 100th and 101st minute.

Mauricio Pochettino's side signed the attacking midfielder from Manchester City last summer for a fee of £40m, which is a bargain in modern terms given the youngster's high ceiling, and the fact that he is already one of the Premier League's best talents.

The Stamford Bridge outfit have offered Palmer the sort of playing time that he was never afforded by Pep Guardiola at City, as he has already made over 25 Premier League appearances for the Blues this season, which is more than the starlet ever managed at his former club.

Palmer has been a standout performer week in, week out for Pochettino's men, who are enduring an underwhelming league season, so it would be a scary thought for Chelsea fans to wonder where they would be without their star man.

But last summer, there was transfer speculation linking the 21-year-old to Championship outfit Leicester City, as reported by Ben Jacobs via GiveMeSport.

Leicester City links to Cole Palmer now seem ridiculous

The Foxes may be a club who have enjoyed success on a large scale in recent years, with a Premier League title win in 2016, and an FA Cup triumph in 2021, but perhaps signing a player with the talent of Palmer as a Championship outfit was never a realistic aspiration for Enzo Maresca and co.

The former Man City man has become one of the top flight's most dangerous and most talked about players, and it seems that the ace finds a way of bettering his previous exploits game by game.

For example, Palmer rightfully received plaudits for a brace scored against Burnley in a 2-2 draw on March 30, but he then went on to capture the eye of the footballing world with a hat-trick against Manchester United on Thursday night.

Perhaps no one could have predicted quite how impactful the ace would be in West London, and on the Premier League this season ahead of the campaign, but the idea of a player with Palmer's ability plying his trade below the top level is a ludicrous one.

Cole Palmer links demonstrated Leicester City's ambition

Although Maresca's outfit may never have been realistically able to sign Palmer, not least due to the profit and sustainability rules which are troubling them, it demonstrates the ambition of the Foxes.

Palmer is currently so good he is on a different level to most other players in English football, but the Foxes do have several players in their squad - such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Ricardo Pereira - who are more than capable of operating at Premier League level, despite currently playing in the Championship.