Atletico Madrid confirm signing of England star – Why Chelsea may regret selling Conor Gallagher

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Done Deal 21.08.2024 – 10:36
| source: Transfermarkt |
Reading Time: 4 mins

However, Gallagher’s departure will undoubtedly be one that will be met with mixed emotions from Chelsea fans. While the club’s support are used to players coming and going, the midfielder represents not only the fourth youth academy player to be sold in this current transfer window, but also a talent that was pivotal to all that went right on the pitch last season. And while new head coach Enzo Maresca would certainly argue that his squad is well stocked when it comes to central midfielders, there may be some regrets over letting one of the club’s top performers depart the club under a cloud of frustration over the relatively low transfer fee and the sense that Chelsea have turned their back on one of their own youth players. 

How good was Conor Gallagher for Chelsea last season?

While the time spent on Gareth Southgate’s bench at Euro 2024, combined with his imminent sale this summer, may suggest that Gallagher isn’t quite up to scratch in comparison to the best midfielders England or indeed the Premier League have to offer, his stats for Chelsea last season would suggest otherwise. For example, it was Gallagher – rather than Moisés Caicedo, Cole Palmer or Enzo Fernández – that finished top of Chelsea’s squad for minutes played in all competitions last season. And while the aforementioned Palmer finished top of the club’s goals and assists tally in the league, Gallagher came third behind striker Nicolas Jackson with 12 goals and assists in 33 games. According to FBRef, the player also finished the season second in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad for key passes – which are passes that lead to a shot. 

In true box-to-box fashion, Gallagher was also one of Chelsea’s best defensive midfielders and broke up opposing attacks as often as he started them for his own side. According to the aforementioned stats website, Gallagher finished the previous league campaign with more interceptions than any other player in Chelsea’s side and was second only to Caicedo for tackles made. Which certainly suggests that while Chelsea may have other players that could help Caicedo with the defensive duties next season, it will be a tall order to ask them to match the sheer level of physicality and dominance that Gallagher often brought to the middle of the pitch for much of the league campaign. 

Why did Chelsea sell Conor Gallagher?

While Chelsea fans may be sad to see Gallagher move on, they will be used to the sight of seeing youth academy players depart the club for big transfer fees. Due to Financial Fair Play rules, the Stamford Bridge club have spent the last 5-10 seasons compensating for their lavish spending by selling players from their own academy due to the fact that those sales often get counted as pure profit. Now that Gallagher has left the club for a €42m transfer fee, it means that Chelsea have earned a remarkable €142m from selling academy players this summer alone and no less than €478.5m since 2014/15. This, undoubtedly, makes up a huge chunk of the €1.48 billion the club have earned from all player sales in that time and explains why Chelsea have been able to spend €2.45b on signing new players in that period of time while mostly staying within the boundaries of FFP rules.