ROMAL PALMER STRAINS his head to an angle to show the small tattoo just below his left ear.
It’s the letter T, for the person he describes as “my rock” and is a constant source of love and trust.
His mother, Tracey, is who Palmer turns to during those hard times and who he wants to see when they’re able to enjoy the good moments.
In football, there are plenty of both.
This season on loan with St Patrick’s Athletic has been a perfect example of the drastic contrasts.
The first time she visited Dublin to watch her son play a few months ago, for example, he didn’t make it off the bench.
On Thursday, she came again and saw him score the only goal in a narrow first-leg win over Sabah FK in the UEFA Conference League third qualifying round.
It was his second of the Saints’ European campaign after finding the net away to FC Vaduz to help ensure their progress to this stage.
“She’s the most laid back woman I know, she’s always been proud of me whether I play good or bad or whatever. She’s always been supporting me, she’s amazing, basically my rock. That’s a little insight to that, so yeah,” Palmer said.
“When you’re actually here [playing European football], it’s a bit surreal in many ways so yeah, so just almost live in the moment and feel it for what it is.
“I feel like if you look too far ahead, you can get lost in that. And if you look too far back, you get lost in that too. Taking every moment for what it is, whether you’ve got injured, just take it for what it is and drive with that, just let it take its natural course, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing, living it.”
Football has given him that perspective.
When he arrived at Richmond Park from Turkish side Göztepe, he was still recovering from a stress fracture in his foot.
Palmer was in a new country, the manager who signed him was sacked soon after and a club that started the campaign with ambitions to challenge for the Premier Division find themselves in seventh place, six points off fourth, with 10 games remaining.
Palmer was dealing with all of this in a new country and, eventually, a new manager when Stephen Kenny was appointed.
“The nature of life, you know,” he says. “You sit there sometimes and think, ‘This is a lot’, a lot of changes to overcome. I just think again when I first came to St Pat’s, everyone was amazing.
“Even though there was a mixture in what was going on, it was still quite clear to me that there was a route forward and that I was in the right place. And that’s how it’s been.
“I had to work each day to get to this point. But I feel that the chance that Stephen has given me has just helped me along so much, so for now I just want to keep kicking on. The staff behind the scenes have been great, it’s been amazing, I can only take St Pat’s for all of that.”
Palmer’s performances over the last month have been far closer to what’s expected of a 25-year-old with his pedigree.
He grew up in Wigan, just outside Manchester, a place he says where “we just eat pies and that, [it's] more rugby and pies pretty much.”
Understated and shy off the pitch, he is beginning to play with a freedom and find a verve on it with licence to get forward from midfield and make things happen.
This is what he wanted to do from the moment he joined Manchester City’s academy as a child and eventually moved on to Barnsley where featured regularly in the Championship for two seasons – they finished fifth and reached the play-offs before suffering relegation in the following 2021/22 campaign.
The highs and lows of football personsified right there.
It reamins a small world even with so many opportunities.
Phil Foden was the year below him at City and has gone on to stardom for club and country. With that comes a different kind of pressure and expectation.
Palmer, like three of his friends from those City days, happened to find their way to the League of Ireland. Will Patching, Sadou Diallo and Jacob Davenport are on the books with Derry City.
“Everyone is on their own journey,” Palmer says.
“It is just funny how we’ve all ended up here at the same time. It’s just the nature of football, it’s great. They’re happy and I’m also happy.”
Luckily he also has his rock for when he’s stuck between there and a hard place.
