“Won it by a mile” – The unlikely Chelsea player who dominated physical tests | OneFootball

John Terry was on TalkSport this morning, which produced tons of really great stories and insight.

As well as being a legendary figure at the club, JT has also been around Cobham more recently as a coach, so he’s seen a lot of the current crop up close too.

He talked a little about what he had seen in training recently, and produced one fact about star boy Cole Palmer that might surprise a few people:

“He’s quite quick. I was at Chelsea the other day, and they were doing a bleep test.

“He won it by a mile. He was cruising, like people were dropping out. He was there right to the end. In terms of fitness levels and the power, he looks quite skinny, but very strong.

This all chimes with what we heard recently in other places – Palmer is actually one of the fastest and fittest and hardest trainers in the squad, despite his languid style and laconic personality making that hard to square sometimes.

Interesting – we hope it wasn’t doing this bleep test which cause Palmer to pick up this injury which ruled him out of last weekend’s defeat to Arsenal and is now threatening his involvement in weeks to come!

Terry on the magic moments that make Palmer special

Cole Palmer scores for Chelsea against Spurs. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Terry also had some comments about Palmer’s style and body language:

“It seems to be too easy for him at times. He strolls through games a little bit, but he’s so far ahead of everyone else in terms of the way he sees the game. He always plays that forward pass.

“When you go to these games at the Bridge you can’t help but just watch and follow him. The ball’s at the other end of the pitch, and you’re just watching his movement.