TBR have today published an exclusive from their writer Graeme Bailey which claims that Chelsea are interested in Manuel Ugarte from PSG as a replacement for Conor Gallagher.
The all-action Uruguayan was brought to Paris from Sporting last summer for around €60m after plenty of links with a Chelsea move then, but the French side have already decided they don’t want him, and there are widespread reports that he could be sold at a loss as soon as this summer.
Ugarte is said to be “open” to a move to Chelsea, which is no surprise if he’s been told he’s surplus to requirements at PSG, where he’s increasingly found himself on the bench in recent times. But do Chelsea really want a player who’s been chucked in the bin less than 12 months after arriving at the Parc Des Princes?
Chelsea shouldn’t take the bait
We wrote this already in response to the Teun Koopmeiners links that are also starting to surface at the moment. Chelsea’s midfield was stripped bare this season by injuries to Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu, who missed 99% and 70% of the season respectively. Then we had Enzo’s absence for these final weeks to make things worse.
No wonder there’s a feeling we need more signings in that area. We were stretched so thin it’s a miracle we didn’t pick up more injuries as people like poor Moises Caicedo played game after game at high intensity.
But when Lavia and Ugochukwu are back, it’s going to be crowded in there. Instead of selling Conor Gallagher and buying a potentially inferior version in someone like Ugarte, why not just keep Gallagher? His contract situation needs to be sorted, but if we just offer him a small percentage of the £50m it would take to sign Ugarte, surely everyone’s a winner?
Regardless of whether Ugarte is an upgrade to our current midfield choices, everyone needs to face up to the fact that Gallagher isn’t good enough to start in a squad that aims to win league titles. He has a terrific work rate and good intelligence and has played a vital role for us in terms of pressure and winning balls, but anyone with eyes can see that he’s simply not an elite player on a technical level. Pick any game and it’s pretty easy to pick out multiple plays where his touch lets him down or he fails to pick out the incisive pass. So, while he’s been a big help in getting us into the top 6, we have to find an upgrade if we aim to compete in the top 3. Put another way, you’d never see Gallagher starting at City or Arsenal—he’d be a squad player—and the fanbase have got to get over their sentimentality (that he’s “homegrown”) and recognize that he’s not the elite talent we’ll need in the long run.
Not sure who you are but Gallagher is a player to be kept, we have outed to many good players over recent years and don’t need to lose another.