The news that Conor Gallagher is off to Atletico Madrid for €40m broke last night, and it triggered a major debate on TalkSport this morning about the move, and whether it was representative of major damage being done to Chelsea by the owners and sporting directors.
“You need people who understand the fabric of the football club, who have come through the ranks and know what it means to wear the shirt,” Alex Crook explained. He concedes that the academy midfielder is never going to be the new Zidane, but points out what a home grown player can add beyond just technical skill.
Darragh MacAnthony couldn’t have disagreed more – he claimed that the fact that Gallagher couldn’t get a game for England meant that Chelsea weren’t losing much by selling him.
How curious, we must have missed the news about Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham signing for Chelsea.
You can see their debate in the clip embedded here:
What do Rice or Bellingham have to do with anything, SuperFrank?! If you actually mean to argue that Gallagher deserves to start in front of Enzo, Caicedo, Lavia, or Dewbury-Hall in Enzo Maresca’s new system then MAKE THE ARGUMENT, lol! But you didn’t do that did you? You think you can discount MacAnthony’s argument with a throwaway one-liner about Bellingham and Rice that does NOTHING to paper over the fact that Gallagher had a lousy Euros and never showed the technical class to convince anyone he would have been anything but a squad player under Maresca. This is precisely why the club offered him a completely fair two-year extension on higher wages but not a long-term deal (which HE refused). If you want to argue that this wasn’t fair to the player then at least come with the goods—some data, some film, SOMETHING to substantiate your argument beyond this flimsy “but he was one of our own” sentiment.