Chelsea's Mismanagement Exposed in Gallagher Deal, Homegrown Talent Wasted

 

He was kicked out of the club he had been with for 16 years because the Blues' soul was still being torn apart piece by piece.

It's getting harder and harder to be shocked by the choices made at the highest level since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium has owned Chelsea for two years, but they are still doing their best. 

The club is about to sell school graduate Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid. This is the latest questionable move in the transfer market.

Last season, the 24-year-old became a key player and fan favorite as an ever-present in Mauricio Pochettino's midfield. 

He even filled in as captain for the Blues several times and often led his teammates to victory as Chelsea finally started progressing in the second half of the season.

However, the club's leaders see the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) as the most important thing. Those rules make everything else meaningless. 

It's crazy that Boehly-Clearlake spent more than £1 billion ($1.25bn) in just two years in charge. Gallagher, who has been at Chelsea since he was eight, is seen as unnecessary as the authority desperately tries to balance the books.                   

"I love Chelsea."

A sad part of this whole story might be that Gallagher is being kicked out of the club he loves by the people who now run it. He would never leave alone, but the club's money problems have made him a pawn in the whole thing.

Gallagher is one of the few players left on the team who knows what it means to play for Chelsea. He has the same discipline and toughness that players like John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Dennis Wise have shown at Stamford Bridge.

Gallagher has been a Chelsea fan since he was eight years old. Having someone in a fairly young team who shares those deep-seated values is beneficial.

 Last year, he said: "Chelsea is my club, I’ve supported them all my life, and I just want to do so well whenever I step onto the pitch in a Chelsea shirt." He said it again in another interview: "Everyone knows Chelsea is my club, and I love playing for them."

Galagher has repeatedly shown that he is the type of player managers love. He makes up for any physical flaws with relentless running, aggressive tackling, and constant pressing. For the cause, he would charge through a wall made of bricks.

Pochettino, his former boss, saw he was a good leader and made him captain last season when both captain Reece James and vice-captain Ben Chilwell were hurt. He almost left last summer but became an important player and started all 24 Premier League games he was ready for in 2023–24.

The midfielder also improves the people around him by doing the messy work and hard work so they don't have to. 

Many Chelsea fans think Moises Caicedo, who cost £115 million ($145 million), played best when he played with the England international in a double pivot last season. 

On other occasions, his presence has helped Enzo Fernandez improve his game.

In 2023–24, Gallagher didn't just work in the background; he also made 16 goals possible across all tournaments. 

Opta says that by the end of 2023, Gallagher was the only player in Europe's top five leagues with 20 or more shots, 20 or more chances created, 20 or more dribbles finished, 20 or more touches in the other team's box, 20 or more duels won, 20 or more tackles made, and 20 or more interceptions made.

Chelsea really thought about moving him last summer, and his great season on his own hasn't been enough to change the minds of those in charge.
Handling is shameful

So, it's not an exaggeration to say that Gallagher has given his all for Chelsea in the short time he has been on the first team. He has been a model of stability, work ethic, and grit during a rough time for the club. The idea that he was kicked out of the club is even harder to accept.

Late on July 31, Chelsea told several reporters that Gallagher had turned down a third offer of a two-year contract with an option for another year. 

The new deal would have included a pay raise that would have put him on the same pay level as Caicedo and Fernandez in the middle.

 During the same period, news emerged that the club had agreed to sell the youth graduate to Atletico Madrid for £34m ($44m).

Later, it was revealed that Gallagher, who was in the last year of his contract in west London, had turned down the new deal because he was told he would only be a squad player under Enzo Maresca because he didn't fit the new head coach's offense-based style of play. He also wanted a longer-term deal than what was on offer.

Not long after that, there were rumors that Gallagher would be kicked off the first team when he returned from vacation after Euro 2024. The club disputed that, but it was clear what the player had to do: either agree to the bad terms or leave.

The Atletico Madrid team gave Gallagher until the end of the weekend to decide. Early Monday morning, it was announced that he had chosen to move to Madrid. 

As seen from the outside, it looked like the Cobham graduate had been cruelly kicked out of the club he had played for and supported for 16 years.
                                        

Fans are going to spit blood

Even though Maresca is the new spokesperson, Chelsea's owners are playing a very risky game. 

People feel about Gallagher very differently between fans who go to games and fans who watch them online or in their seats at home.

The fans think the midfielder is a "proper Chels" and represents the club's core values in the modern age because they saw him rise from the youth team to the first team during a successful loan spell at Crystal Palace.

 Many of them thought he was disposable because he wasn't as technically skilled as Chelsea's other central midfield choices, and, famously, the club needed to sell.

As late as May, a huge banner of the midfielder with the words "Chelsea since birth" written across it was put up at Stamford Bridge before the win over Tottenham. 

That show of support came at a time when his future was unsure. The club's biggest fans will be furious because he was allowed to leave and because of how he left.

The ownership group of Boehly and Clearlake is already at its least popular point. More and more fans wonder if they have any idea what they're doing, and they risk making the mood in the stadium more toxic. 

People will see the hierarchy's decision to fire the player as the latest in a long line of terrible mistakes, a cynical, money-driven move made because they need to fix their own financial mistakes in their short time in charge.

There have already been protests and chants against Boehly and his team, but they will get louder and more general once one of Cobham's favorite sons is sold to raise money.