There was one person dominating the Chelsea headlines this week – Conor Gallagher.
The midfielder’s future has been up in the air for a long time, but the last few days have seen it all coming to a head. Atletico Madrid had a €40m offer accepted by Chelsea, and gave Gallagher until the end of this week to agree to it.
Meanwhile the Blues did all they could to force the midfielder into accepting a move away they’re banking on for FFP reasons. Reports at the start of the weekend were that they were ready to prevent him training with the first team when they return from the USA tour next week.
They’ve gone nuclear, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. As Sky Sports point out, Gallagher is still in England as far as we know, with the deadline set by the Spanish side getting closer and closer.
You can see Sky’s report on the situation here:
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1820095699750433216
Crunch time for Chelsea academy lad
It’s hard to disagree with their take. If the deadline was the end of this weekend and it’s now Sunday afternoon, one would have to think it’s not going to happen. If Gallagher wasn’t sure about the move to start with and hasn’t taken the chance by now, it feels unlikely he has a change of heart now.
By the sounds of things, Chelsea have tried the carrot and the stick, and are now left without many cards to play. Do they crumble and finally offer him a long deal on terms he can agree with, or do they unleash hell by freezing him out of first team training?
A lot will be revealed tomorrow…
