Chelsea’s Patrick Bamford: “Palace Were Always My First Choice”

Patrick Bamford’s loan move to Crystal Palace was officially confirmed at 5:30pm this evening, with the Chelsea man agreeing to a deal which will see him stay at Selhurst Park for the entirety of the 2015/16 campaign. Still only 21, the striker has most recently spent time out of loan with Middlesbrough, where he bagged an impressive 19 goals on course to being voted the Championship’s Player of the Year whilst helping Aitor Karanka’s men to reach the play-off final. Now though, with Chelsea keen to see if he can translate his fine form in front of goal to the Premier League, he is readying himself for the next step on the ladder with Crystal Palace; a challenge he was more than rosy for when speaking exclusively to Chris Grierson about the deal earlier today. He said: “I was quite keen to stay close to London this time and Palace were actually my first choice, but I didn’t realise they were keen to start with. Then, when I met with the manager, he put forward his plans and it was an easy decision.” I like to get in behind the defence. I’d say I’m deceptively quick, but I’m sure they’ll make their own minds up! I do like to score goals, so hopefully I’ll be able to do that a lot here. I want to try to establish myself in a Premier League team and if I can do that here then it would be great for me and great for the club.” Despite his age, Bamford speaks extremely well, coming across as both confident and humble in the same breath. Clearly desperate to prove that he has what it takes to be a success with Chelsea in the long-term, the frontman will be keen to hit the ground running in SE25, as he looks to establish himself in the Palace first team in the coming months. Yesterday morning, there were plenty of Palace fans suggesting that they were a tad underwhelmed by the news that Bamford was on his way to the club, but with his career to dare having been packed full of goals, there is little reason to suggest that it’s a trend which is about to come to a halt in red and blue. Hopefully he gets some game time in South Africa and finds the net straightaway. We certainly wouldn’t want to bet against him doing so.