Conor Gallagher’s future is the talk of the window right now, with a pending offer from Atletico Madrid on the table.
They’ve bid and Chelsea have accepted – it’s just a question of whether the midfielder gives it the green light.
Meanwhile at Sky Sports, their sources claim that he’s still interested in signing a new contract. This doesn’t surprise us – the only reason he’s still at the club and didn’t accept one of the many transfer opportunities he’s had in the las 18 months is because wants to stay – if an acceptable contract is offered.
What would be interesting would be to compare Atletico’s offer to Chelsea’s. Sadly these games are all played with briefings and insiders, so we will never know the truth of the two.
The deadlock remains
We’ve heard this all before though, and it never goes anywhere. The club clearly aren’t offering him what he wants, and he’s shown he’s not going to accept anything below that.
The only reason this might change now is if Gallagher turns down Atletico. If he really has gone into his final year without a single potential departure left, the club’s desire to get a fee for them might just cause them to crumble and give him the deal he wants.
But that would just mean that he’s won the game of bluff that’s gone on for two years. We wonder if the sporting directors would be ready to accept that sort of loss of faith?
We also now reach a crucially awkward stage, when the squad fly back from their USA tour and Gallagher is expected to join up with them, alongside fellow Euros finalists Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella. Leaving him out of our friendlies could be the final card that the management have to play as they look to force the midfielder out.
As a lifelong supporter i truly cannot understand the stance that the club is taking with Conor. Alongside Palmer and Thiago Silva, Conor was a standout performer last season and its clear that the club runs through his veins. What sort of example are we setting by forcibly putting him up for sale?