Cole Palmer at The Valley? Lewis Fiorini on friendship with Chelsea star, shock at a five-year Manchester City deal and losing his early career momentum
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Lewis Fiorini has been one of the Manchester City youngsters touted for a massive future in the game – but the Charlton Athletic loanee is brutally honest when it comes to his prospects now with the Premier League giants.
The midfielder signed a five-year contract extension, running until the summer of 2026, after he came back from a highly successful season-long stay with NAC Breda.
But a hamstring injury hampered his loan at Blackpool last season – ruling him out from the end of August until February – and then he suffered ankle ligament damage in training which prevented him making a temporary exit from City in the summer transfer window.
Fiorini jumped at the chance to work for a third time with Michael Appleton after spells under him at Lincoln and then Blackpool.
Appleton, sacked by the Addicks on Tuesday night, is an admirer but feels the Scotland U21 international needs to “find a home” and then added: “Clearly he is not going to play for Manchester City.”
And Fiorini, speaking to the South London Press at Charlton’s training ground last week, accepts that appraisal of his situation.
“It’s fair comment – definitely,” said Fiorini, who has followed his dad in being a City fan since boyhood. “People on the outside will say you need to dream high – and of course that is to play for the club.
“Stranger things have happened in football but what has helped me in my career is that I’m realistic. I knew at 16 or 17 – it’s not about being ambitious – but that team had Kevin De Bruyne, Bernado Silva and David Silva.
“So to walk into that dressing room at the age of 18 and think you’re going to get the games to develop – you have got to be Phil Foden. It even took him years, and he was probably the best in his age group in the world.
“It’s about me trying to build a career and find a home somewhere, wherever that may be.”
Fiorini admits to an element of shock at City handing him such long terms after his stint in Holland.
He scored six goals and registered five assists in 36 matches as Breda missed out on promotion to the top flight, NEC Nijmegen scored a 89th-minute winner in the play-off final.
“I was coming back from Holland and I had a year left on my contract,” said Fiorini. “Coming back off a good season I was expecting an extension, but maybe a two-year one. So when they put that (a five-year contract) on the table it was a no-brainer, in terms of security.
“The natural progression, as part of their plan, was to go into the English leagues. I had a good year in League One and then went into the Championship last year.
“Momentum is the key word – I had it then. I was gathering real momentum. You’re talking playing 80 games before I turned 20, which was massive for me.
“The next progression, with the gaffer getting the Blackpool job, was to go to the Championship. I’d had a successful loan with him – he knew what he got out of me and I knew what he wanted. It started really well, I started the first four league games – I was feeling good at the level – and injuries have hit since.
“I was out until mid-November at Blackpool and then trained for a month – the day before my first game back I felt the hamstring in the same place.
“I played in nine games at the end of last season – I didn’t want it to end. I know the club got relegated but I was getting back to myself.
“Then, back at City, I struck a ball and a lad slid to block. As he landed his whole body weight went on my ankle – it ruptured my ATL (anterior talofibular ligament). Completely unavoidable, because of the force of it.
“I was in pain but the timing of the injury was the biggest thing – because I knew then that I would be at City until January. I’ve had two stop-start seasons.”
Fiorini has lived the dream though – playing for City through the age groups, including U18 and U23 football. He joined them at the age of seven.
“I was close to signing for Bolton – they were in the Premier League at the time and City weren’t what they are now,” said Fiorini. “I enjoyed it more at Bolton. In the end City offered a contract and I ended up signing for them.
“My dad was quite influential. There were times that United wanted me and he said: “I’ll wear a United top if you go’. But I said I didn’t want to go to United. It was stupid but back then I was only a little boy.”
It could be that Charlton fans will spot Cole Palmer at one of their matches.
Palmer also started on City’s books before joining Chelsea in a summer deal for an initial fee of £40million on a seven-year contract.
His form for the Blues has led to Palmer winning senior international recognition with England.
Fiorini picks him out as the biggest talent he has played with.
“It was always me and him, as an eight and a 10, growing up – all the way to U18 and U23s,” said Fiorini. “He stayed around the first-team.
“He’s someone who I’ve stayed in touch with. I’m biased towards him – because of how close we are – but he is smashing it now.
“He’s said he will come to The Valley if his game is on a Sunday and we are playing on a Saturday.
“I went to watch him at Old Trafford recently, when he scored. That was good, with me being a City fan. I really enjoyed that.”
Palmer interacted on social media when Fiorini scored his first goal on loan at Lincoln City – a strike from the outside of the box against Cambridge United in September 2021.
“Away from the game we are truly mates,” said Fiorini.
“You have friends in football where if you leave the club you probably won’t stay in touch – but we are genuine friends. It’s great how it is going for him and he can do a lot more, as well.”
That spell at Breda is a standout period of his career, which is still in its infancy.
“There was high expectation there as well, which was good for me to feel,” said Fiorini. “They are a top-10 club in Holland, based on stadium and fanbase. A sleeping giant, that kind of vibe – we were expected to win.
“That is probably one of the things I look back on. Not as a regret, because I know I did everything to try and get the club promoted, but being so young and the way they looked after me – it was the Covid period so I had no family there from November to May – I was literally under their care.
“A family took me in and I had a real connection with the fans and the players.
“Them lads probably looked at me and thought ‘he’s from City – he’s going to be this and that’. It was an amazing time.
“The final is one I look back on and wish it went differently.”
Fiorini’s stay with Charlton will no longer be with Appleton in the hotseat.
Speaking before his departure after a torrid 12-game winless streak, he said: “His style of play promotes young players.
“Not that he can’t work with older players, but he has a track record of developing players who have gone on to do great things.
“At Lincoln we had the likes of Brennan Johnson – who has gone on to play in the Premier League. My mate Morgan Rogers, he had him in the season they (Lincoln) got to the play-offs.
“There is a transition phase to his way of playing, you have to adapt to it. It takes time.
“Me coming from the Manchester City background, the way I’ve been educated, it relates with what he wants, in some aspects. It’s why I think I took to it so easy.
“Lads who have learned a different way, he is coming with new ideas and it takes time to adapt. At City it was drilled into me at a young age.”
MAIN PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS