Exequiel Palacios Joins Town as Ambitious Signing

Town have landed a World Cup winner and, in Gary O’Neil’s words, “an incredible signing”. Exequiel Palacios is officially a Blue.

The Argentina midfielder completed his move from Bayer Leverkusen last night, signing a contract through to the summer of 2030. Town will pay an initial €22.5 million (£19.2 million), with a further €5 million (£4.3 million) in potential add-ons, while Leverkusen retain a 10 per cent sell-on clause.

For a newly promoted club, this is heavyweight business.

“I knew he was coming”

O’Neil has been careful not to oversell much since taking the job. On Palacios, he didn’t need to.

“He’s a talented boy and has obviously had some huge success over the last few years, club and national level,” the Town manager said. “An incredible signing by the football club, the work that went in from everybody, all summer really, to try and attract people to the project and to what we’re trying to build.”

The pursuit has been long. Town kept coming back with bids in recent weeks and, once the talks advanced, the move began to feel inevitable.

“No, I knew he was coming,” O’Neil admitted. “Probably the more challenging bit was agreeing club-to-club, I would guess.

“The moment I spoke to the boy, I could tell he was desperate to come and play for the football club, which shows how far the club has come and the journey it’s been on, and everyone who has played a part in it should be really proud.”

The manager made it clear, though, that this is not a finishing line.

“But it doesn’t stop, we don’t rest at that, this is only the beginning now, so we need to make sure that we use all of this to continue to push and keep trying to raise the ceiling higher than it’s been.”

Debut stage: Old Trafford

Town fans won’t have to wait long to see their new star.

The Blues travel to Manchester United on Sunday and O’Neil fully expects Palacios to be involved.

“I’m sure you’ll see him on Sunday. I’m sure you’ll see him,” he said, hinting strongly that the 27-year-old will at least feature off the bench.

Palacios arrives slightly behind his new teammates in terms of tactical work and pre-season integration, but O’Neil believes his qualities and mentality will show quickly.

“He’s a fantastic addition, excited to work with him, excited for the group that we add another layer of strength to us, and we’ll need it. It’s a long 38-game season, cup games as well. We’re going to need as many bodies as we can.

“We’re trying to make sure we’re well covered in every position with quality, with experience, with youth, with athleticism, trying to cover everything that the Premier League will test and Pala gives us real quality in the middle of the pitch.”

Why Palacios chose Town

Convincing a World Cup winner at the peak of his career to join a newly promoted side is no small feat. For O’Neil, the explanation is clear.

“He wants to test himself in the Premier League, and I understand why, it's the best league in the world, the most challenging league in the world,” he said.

“As I say, he's obviously had huge successes. He's an unbelievably talented footballer, but now he wanted to come and test himself in the Premier League.

“And we spoke to him about the project, we spoke to him about how the team was going to play, how he fitted it, how his role would help us.

“And we had a real good alignment on how we felt we could move forward together as a football club and as a talented footballer.”

Palacios will need time to absorb the tactical detail that the squad have been working on over the past seven or eight weeks, but O’Neil is banking on his competitive edge.

“So let's see. We're going to do a lot of work with him, the lads have had seven, eight weeks of good work and understanding, tactical stuff and obviously Palacios will be slightly behind on that. But he definitely brings a desire to win.

“He’s South American, I've worked with a lot of them. They bring an unbelievable enthusiasm for the game, passion, desperate to win. So all of those qualities that we're going to need, he brings.”

Not about noise, about results

A signing of this magnitude inevitably raises the question: is this a statement to the rest of the division? Will it help pull in more big names before the window shuts next Tuesday?

O’Neil batted away the idea of transfer-market posturing.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I try and make a statement at three o’clock on Saturday, if I can, that’s the biggest opportunity for me and the team to let people know where we’re at.

“The other stuff people will read into, or not. I think our exam paper comes every weekend when the whistle blows and we see where we’re at.

“There’s just a real focus and determination to go there and back up what has been a decent start for us.”

Ambition as the selling point

The same ambition that persuaded Palacios to join is what lured O’Neil himself in the summer.

“I spoke about my opportunity to come here in the summer, and obviously there were opportunities for me in the past to return to the Premier League. But they didn’t feel quite right,” he explained.

“I was in a job that I was really enjoying in France and I wasn’t going to jump out for anything but the ambition that this place has, the support they give coaches and the direction of travel.”

That pull is now working on players, too.

“And I think you’re seeing that from players as well, for a newly promoted club to be able to attract some of the players we have, proven Premier League players in Issa [Diop] and Sasa [Lukic] and some players from all around the world.

“So I’m really grateful for the owners’ backing. I know they’re committed to making this club as special as they can.

“And we’ve had a really good go in the window to make ourselves competitive, which is needed, by the way, if you look at the recent history of teams that are promoted from the Championship.

“You need to improve your squad fairly significantly to give yourself the best chance of being competitive in the Premier League.”

Now they have a World Cup winner at the heart of that push. The question is no longer whether Town belong at this level, but how far this project – and Palacios with it – can drive them.