Former Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher has hit back at some rumours and stories that were written about him and Enzo Maresca just before he joined Atletico Madrid in the summer.
The Gallagher rumours have been going on for years really, that Chelsea wanted to sell him. And in the end, they did sell him as expected.
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We all know that his sale represents a pure profit sale due to the fact that he is from the Chelsea academy and is home grown. And he also had a year left on his contract this summer, so it became pretty clear that he was going to be sold.
But some rumours and stories claimed that he was going to be sold because he didn’t fit Enzo Maresca’s system and perhaps didn’t have the technical qualities to play it.
Gallagher says that is NOT true
Gallagher has responded to those claims in an interview cited by The Daily Mail, and on rumours that he was sold because of not fitting into Enzo Maresca’s system, he says:
“I don’t think that’s true personally. I think last season I had a good season with Chelsea as you could see by Mauricio Pochettino playing me every game and showing his trust in me. And the fans appreciated what I did on the pitch too.”
“I’m very grateful for all of that and very thankful to the fans. And very thankful to Pochettino for giving me that platform to go and express myself and show the best version of myself at Chelsea.”
Anyone with eyes can see the limitations of Gallagher’s games—even if the player himself is blind to it. We can love Gallagher for his heart and his tireless work rate and still assess that he doesn’t have the technical skill to flourish in an Enzo Maresca system (i.e., a system where the team enjoys 60-70% possession, often against packed defenses, where the midfielders must operate in the half spaces between the lines and find the telling pass to unlock the defense). Sorry, but that’s just not Conor Gallagher’s game. Ask yourself: Would he start for City or Arsenal (two similar systems)? No, not in a million years!
And this was the crux of the stand-off when the club offered Gallagher a two-year extension instead of a longer term deal (because they viewed him as a squad player in the long-run). Obviously, he saw things differently (as is his prerogative), but that doesn’t mean the club was wrong.