It's not too often nowadays that a player would rather stay at a football club and fight for their place instead of looking elsewhere with offers on the table.
But that is exactly what happened with Conor Gallagher in the January transfer window. Everton were among multiple Premier League clubs with a keen interest in the England international in the mid-season window. The Toffees offered Chelsea around £45million for Gallagher, but the midfielder wanted to stay put at Stamford Bridge and fight for his place under Graham Potter.
Now, almost four months on from Everton's bid, Potter is gone and Frank Lampard is in interim charge until the end of the season. The irony of that is that it was Lampard who is thought to have brought the idea of bringing Gallagher to Goodison Park at the start of 2023, only for the player to turn the move down when Sean Dyche took over.
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Lampard's admiration of Gallagher is clear to see. The 23-year-old has started in the majority of games since Lampard took temporary charge of the first team. His role has been slightly different to the one he played under Potter earlier in the season. It has been more advanced, with more responsibility on adding an attacking threat to his game for the Blues, who have struggled in front of goal since Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge.
See the diagram below, for example. That's Gallagher's heat-map in the 67 minutes he played in the Champions League quarter-final, second-leg defeat to Real Madrid last month. It was an unusual and rather surprising line-up that Lampard put out, with Gallagher and N'Golo Kante – two players who usually play in deeper positions – being the most advanced behind central striker Kai Havertz.
It's similar to the position where Gallagher flourished at Crystal Palace last season on loan. It definitely needed to be tried but thus far it hasn't really worked for the England international. His off-the-ball work is tremendous but what he does in possession is often wasteful and opens him up to strong criticism.
He's one of those players that managers will love because of their work ethic and attitude but if a coach is to be more ruthless with his players, perhaps they will need more end product than Gallagher has produced. This is not to say Gallagher is the only player in the Chelsea squad with this issue because they have all struggled and nobody – not one person – has performed as well as the club and supporters will have expected in attacking areas this season.
Gallagher faces some huge decisions when this season comes to an end. He will be entering the final two years of his contract at Stamford Bridge. Senior officials at the club are determined to avoid past mistakes with players in the latter stages of their respective contracts and be more decisive.
The Cobham graduate is one of numerous players at risk of being sold this summer. Gallagher will not be short of suitors. As football.london reported last month, Liverpool have a keen interest in the midfielder as they look to rebuild in the middle of the pitch in the summer transfer window.
After having an offer understood to be in the region of £45m come their way a few months ago, Chelsea will be hoping to receive bids at around the £40m-mark in the summer. As it stands, there are no official talks behind the scenes regarding an extension of his deal, football.london understands, so a summer move could well be on the cards.
Mauricio Pochettino is still expected to become Chelsea's new permanent head coach at the end of the season and the Argentine will undoubtedly have a clear vision of what he wants his midfield to look like in terms of personnel and the shape. It's unclear just yet if Gallagher will be part of Pochettino's plans at the club but a decision will need to be made in the summer before the Blues possibly lose the midfielder for a reduced price.
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