Chelsea FC have released an important statement this afternoon via the club’s official website.
The club have taken to the site to release some words after an incident occurred in Saturday’s home match against Burnley, in which he captained the side to a 2-2 draw.
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Gallagher was leading his Chelsea team mates out from the tunnel when video footage captured what appeared to be the midfielder ignoring giving a mascot the high five.
Chelsea have said that the footage has been taken out of context and the abuse that Gallagher has subsequently received is out of order.
It’s a very short and sharp message that is to the point, but without further explanation really.
It reads:
‘Chelsea Football Club is aware of a video clip circulating on social media from Saturday’s fixture against Burnley, which has been taken considerably out of context.
‘The subsequent level of abuse and defamatory comments directed towards Conor Gallagher is completely unacceptable.
‘We are proud to be a diverse, inclusive club where people from all cultures, communities and identities feel welcome.’
There has been a pretty big backlash from some online, and now the media are picking up on it a bit more after this statement.
Gallagher will likely be leading Chelsea out at Stamford Bridge again tomorrow night when they welcome Manchester United to Stamford Bridge.
Some within the Chelsea fan base really need to get a grip. They fly off the handle at the slightest perceived provocation and then spew vitriol without any sense of measure or proportion. It’s as obnoxious as it is counterproductive, but the rest of the fan base seems inclined to sit on their hands as they watch it slowly eat away at the club like battery acid. Worse still, sites like this one spend a considerable amount of time repeating, amplifying, and generally giving oxygen to these narratives all in the name of “clicks” (because nothing “sells” quite like controversy).
Maybe it’s asking too much, but I’d really like to see Chelsea News raise their standard on what qualifies as “news.” Stop trafficking in ill-founded and thinly-sourced rumours, and, above all, cut out the knee-jerk cynicism that seems to be embedded in nearly every piece—especially those authored by SuperFrank and Simon Phillips. Stop pandering to the most obnoxious (if diehard) amongst the so-called supporters with the constant deluge of unnecessarily negative narratives, and, instead, serve the club by sticking to facts. Report what can be verified without resorting to wild speculation or poorly-reasoned “hot takes.”
It’s a form of rigor and discipline that’s all too often missing in modern culture, but this latest incident with Gallagher (which Chelsea News rushed to report on, without context, shortly after it happened) is a good example of where it goes badly wrong—a rush to condemn a player for what was almost certainly an innocent oversight. Is Chelsea News so hard-up for clicks that it can’t at least follow its own version of the Hippocratic Oath—“first, do no harm?”