Town Signs World Cup Winner Exequiel Palacios

Town have landed a World Cup winner, and Gary O’Neil can barely hide what it means.

Exequiel Palacios is now a Blues player, the Argentina midfielder completing his switch from Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night in what feels like a landmark deal for the newly promoted club.

The 27-year-old has signed through to the summer of 2030. Town will pay €22.5 million (£19.2 million) up front, with a further €5 million (£4.3 million) in add-ons agreed, while Leverkusen have secured a 10 per cent sell-on clause. Serious money, serious intent.

“Incredible signing,” O’Neil said, and he didn’t dress it up much more than that.

“He’s a talented boy and has obviously had some huge success over the last few years, club and national level.

“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.”

You could feel him zooming out from one player to the bigger picture. This is about Palacios, but not only Palacios.

“And you can feel the belief around the place just constantly growing and constantly improving not only because of the additions, but also the work that the boys are doing that have been here for a very long time.

The Dara O’Sheas, Jacob Greaves, Leif Davis, many, many more. The good work that’s gone on over the last eight weeks from everybody involved has left us in a place where we believe we can do something special this year.”

A statement signing – and a debut on the horizon

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

“The Blues boss says fans are likely to get their first look at perhaps the biggest name signing in the club’s history at Manchester United: “I’m sure you’ll see him on Sunday. I’m sure you’ll see him.””

This deal didn’t come out of nowhere. Town kept coming back with bids, and once the talks gathered pace, there was a sense of inevitability about it. O’Neil insists he never doubted the outcome.

“No, I knew he was coming,” he said. “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 pride, though, is quickly parked. O’Neil is already talking about what comes next.

“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.

But 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

A World Cup winner leaving a title-winning Leverkusen side for a promoted Premier League club says plenty about Town’s pull right now.

Asked why Palacios wanted the move, O’Neil didn’t hesitate.

“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.

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.”

There is a note of caution. The rest of the squad have had seven or eight weeks of tactical work. Palacios is stepping in late.

“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.”

Does this change how the league sees Town?

A World Cup winner through the door. Big fee. Long contract. It looks like a statement from the outside. O’Neil shrugs that notion off and drags the conversation back to the pitch.

“I don’t know,” he reflected. “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.”

The signing, though, fits neatly with the ambition that lured O’Neil to Town in the first place.

Ambition at the core of Town’s rise

O’Neil turned down earlier chances to return to the Premier League. This one felt different.

“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 continued.

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.

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. It’s how far this project, and Palacios at the centre of it, can actually go.