Exequiel Palacios Joins Town: A Landmark Signing

Gary O’Neil didn’t bother dressing it up. Standing in front of the cameras, he called Exequiel Palacios exactly what the signing feels like for Town: “incredible”.

The Argentina World Cup winner completed his move from Bayer Leverkusen last night, a landmark deal for a newly promoted club trying to punch far above its traditional weight. Palacios, 27, has signed through to the summer of 2030, with Town agreeing a €22.5 million (£19.2 million) fee plus a potential €5 million (£4.3 million) in add-ons. Leverkusen have secured a 10 per cent sell-on clause, a nod to just how highly the Bundesliga champions still rate him.

For O’Neil, it’s the culmination of a summer-long pursuit that became increasingly hard to ignore.

“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.”

This is not just another body through the door. It feels like a line in the sand.

A statement in the middle of the pitch

Town have been careful not to get carried away with their return to the Premier League, but the mood around the club has shifted. O’Neil can sense it every day.

“You can feel the belief around the place just constantly growing and constantly improving,” he said. “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.”

Now they add Palacios to that core. A Champions League-level midfielder, a World Cup winner, walking into a newly promoted side and calling it home until 2030. For Town, that’s uncharted territory.

The first glimpse is likely to come on one of English football’s biggest stages.

“I’m sure you’ll see him on Sunday. I’m sure you’ll see him,” O’Neil said, hinting strongly that Palacios will be involved when Town travel to Manchester United.

No doubts, just a deal to finish

As bids went in and came back over recent weeks, the transfer began to feel inevitable from the outside. Inside the club, O’Neil says there was never any real doubt.

“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.”

That pride, O’Neil insists, cannot turn into complacency.

“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.

“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.”

This is not a vanity signing. It’s a piece of a wider plan.

“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 in his prime to join a newly promoted side is not supposed to be easy. O’Neil’s answer to why Palacios said yes is as simple as it is revealing.

“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.”

The tactical work will take time. The rest, O’Neil believes, is already there.

“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.”

A different kind of statement

Does a transfer like this send a message to the rest of the division? O’Neil shrugs off the idea of winning the summer headlines.

“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.”

Still, there is no escaping what it means when a club of Town’s stature starts landing players of this profile. It speaks to ambition, and that ambition was what pulled O’Neil in the first place.

The project that sold a manager – and now players

“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 said.

“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.”

Players are now seeing the same thing.

“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.”

Town have done exactly that. Now a World Cup winner walks into their midfield, Old Trafford awaits on Sunday, and the question lingers over the rest of the division: how high can this ceiling really go?