Conor Gallagher

[HildoSpur]

We'll have to agree to disagree there.

Sarr is an 8
Bentancur is an 8, who can cover 6
Gio is an 8 - he'll never be a 6

For me, Bissouma is our main 6. Bentancur can play there, but then you're taking him away from, IMO, his best position

Our best midfield imo is Maddison, Bentancur and Sarr. We have nobody in the squad who has the same engine as Sarr who can come in and replicate what he brings to the side.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Our best midfield imo is Maddison, Bentancur and Sarr. We have nobody in the squad who has the same engine as Sarr who can come in and replicate what he brings to the side.

I can see that if you feel that Bentancur starts, in our best side, at 6, then you would prioritise an additional 8 - though I think it's a little harsh on Gio.

Personally, I think Bentancur is likely to start (mostly) at 8

 

[DannyNZ]

Our best midfield imo is Maddison, Bentancur and Sarr. We have nobody in the squad who has the same engine as Sarr who can come in and replicate what he brings to the side.

I think you could play Biss at 6 with Bentancur at 8

 

[HildoSpur]

I think you could play Biss at 6 with Bentancur at 8

You could but I think Sarr is absolutely vital to how we play and needs to start (IMO).

 

[McFlash]

I’m all for giving youngsters a chance, but neither have played at a high enough level to make any kind of judgement on if they’d be better than Gallagher.

Devine is doing ok in league one, but he’s not exactly setting the league on fire in the way someone like Dele did for example.

Donley has played no more than a handful of minutes of men’s football. It’s impossible to say he’s got a higher ceiling than a premier league proven England international.

People always have unrealistic expectations and hopes for our youngsters. It’s fine to have high hopes for them, but the cold truth is a football team can’t perform on high hopes alone. Say Devine and Donley don’t work out, much like Skipp hasn’t, and Winks didn’t and we end up having to rely on them. I can guarantee there will be plenty blaming the club for not buying a ready made player while we had the chance, and how we’ve left the squad short yet again.

Yeah, I agree with what you're saying about the kids and I'm not saying don't buy anyone and hope that the kids come good. That would be daft.

I guess I'm just not overly enamoured with Gallagher and think the money he'd likely cost would be better spent elsewhere.
But then I've been wrong about plenty of players in the past, so there's every chance I'm wrong on him too.

 

[pablo73]

Pay what Ange thinks he's worth to the team (relative to other options), simple as that. If the Chavs value him higher than that, move on.

It seems many on here don't rate him but I'm trusting Big Ange instead.

 

[Hercules]

For those of you respectfully putting up arguments Gallagher v Biss, Kulu, Devine (especially) along with Donley are missing the point hugely Gallagher is not a 6! Don’t tell me he is.

Devine will be here next season. If we are saying he has a higher ceiling than Devine, I will not even bother to argue that. Donley I said will soon be there. And I tell you now, Gallagher potential wise don’t match him. Conclusion splash out 45-55 million on him, then watch how many of our top academy players will want out, they are not stupid. We don’t have a 6 coming through good enough, and that’s what we need.

 

[Japhet]

For those of you respectfully putting up arguments Gallagher v Biss, Kulu, Devine (especially) along with Donley are missing the point hugely Gallagher is not a 6! Don’t tell me he is.

Devine will be here next season. If we are saying he has a higher ceiling than Devine, I will not even bother to argue that. Donley I said will soon be there. And I tell you now, Gallagher potential wise don’t match him. Conclusion splash out 45-55 million on him, then watch how many of our top academy players will want out, they are not stupid. We don’t have a 6 coming through good enough, and that’s what we need.

Seems an unnecessary area to be splashing that sort of cash. I'd sooner we looked at some youngsters, specifically Vermeeren and Wharton as 6's and Nusa/Soule types in attack. I don't see where Gallagher fits in without us losing someone just as good.

 

[djhotspur]

For those of you respectfully putting up arguments Gallagher v Biss, Kulu, Devine (especially) along with Donley are missing the point hugely Gallagher is not a 6! Don’t tell me he is.

Devine will be here next season. If we are saying he has a higher ceiling than Devine, I will not even bother to argue that. Donley I said will soon be there. And I tell you now, Gallagher potential wise don’t match him. Conclusion splash out 45-55 million on him, then watch how many of our top academy players will want out, they are not stupid. We don’t have a 6 coming through good enough, and that’s what we need.

It’s a fine balance between competing now and safe guarding top academy talent. I’m no Gallagher fan, I think he’s a hard working techically limited player that’s worth 30m.
I do think we need 1 in with skipp and hojberg out, and if we see Benta as an 8 then yeah it should be a 6 who’s young with a high ceiling.

 

[vegassd]

He WAS a top target before he arrived so that very well may have changed with the performances of Sarr etc. I'm not saying he still isn't a top target but I think the need for him isn't as great. And my valuation is just that, it's what I would be happy to pay for him, not necessarily his market value.

That's a good point about Sarr - his performances this season have probably moved the needle in terms of what Ange feels he needs in the squad (although that's just a thought). If we did sign Gallagher I'm not sure he is in our starting XI when everyone is fit, so at £45m+ that doesn't seem like the best use of money... especially in January and with the PEH situation.

 

[djhotspur]

Seems an unnecessary area to be splashing that sort of cash. I'd sooner we looked at some youngsters, specifically Vermeeren and Wharton as 6's and Nusa/Soule types in attack. I don't see where Gallagher fits in without us losing someone just as good.

Yeah I agree, I’d much rather nusa in and then sell richie and go big on a striker in the summer.
By summer if we’ve done the below
If we get a young 6 in (fofana?)
Kelly in,
Sess proves himself
Werner does well and we sign him
Go all in massive on a 6
Hojberg and skipp out, Rodon out, spence out, ndombele out, tanganga out, peri leaves free, richie out (maybe make weight in a striker deal), maybe sell Davies as last year of contract.
Then I think things look very very good for us with a squad that can properly compete.

 

[Rob]

If we did sign Gallagher I'm not sure he is in our starting XI when everyone is fit, so at £45m+

Is Johnson in our starting 11 with everyone fit? For me, it's not yet.

 

[tommyt]

Is Johnson in our starting 11 with everyone fit? For me, it's not yet.

Who's in the starting 11 when VdV, Romero and Dragusin are fit?

 

[y1dk1d]

For anyone who got sick of the Dragusin “saga”, I can only see this one dragging until the deadline (and most likely still being a Chelsea player)

 

[HildoSpur]

For those of you respectfully putting up arguments Gallagher v Biss, Kulu, Devine (especially) along with Donley are missing the point hugely Gallagher is not a 6! Don’t tell me he is.

Devine will be here next season. If we are saying he has a higher ceiling than Devine, I will not even bother to argue that. Donley I said will soon be there. And I tell you now, Gallagher potential wise don’t match him. Conclusion splash out 45-55 million on him, then watch how many of our top academy players will want out, they are not stupid. We don’t have a 6 coming through good enough, and that’s what we need.

He wouldn't be coming to play as a 6? He would be a rotation box to box midfielder with Sarr, a number 8. Neither Devine nor Donley are a similar profile of player to Sarr or Gallagher no matter what their 'ceiling' is. We need another player in the squad who can give us what Sarr can and Gallagher can definitely do that as he has a brilliant engine on him. Gallagher is a full England international and has been Chelsea's best player all season. I genuinely can't understand how you can believe that Devine or Donley are certain to be better than him - based on what exactly?

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Is Johnson in our starting 11 with everyone fit? For me, it's not yet.

But you could also argue Johnson is our only true RW. Yes you could say so is Kulu but then again I think there’s a discussion to be had if he isn’t better as a 10. We have Bentancur, Sarr and Gio who are all natural 8’s plus Skipp and probably Devine will be better as an 8 than a 10 or 6. Essentially we already have depth at 8 so spending 45+ mil on another back up/rotation option 8 doesn’t make as much sense as it would doing the same when we got Johnson.

 

[rabbikeane]

Donley certainly not one to compare with as he's definitely a 10. Naturally to grow into Maddison cover and eventually competition.

 

[tottenhamlad]

Bentancur, Bissouma, Sarr, Maddison keep.

Skipp, Hojberg, Lo Celso i would look to move on.

Gallagher is better than any of those for our system. He is a pressing machine, similar to Sarr and he is also more of a goal threat.

I know a lot like Lo Celso but he is injured a lot and i think we might get some decent money for him.

 

[JonnySpurs]

Whether you rate Gallagher or not (I do, FWIW) we have some issues to iron out in our midfield first IMO:

1. Is Bentancur best for us in the 6 or the 8 role?
2. Is Lo Celso reliable enough to keep and would he even sign a contract extension? (has 18 months left IIRC)
3. Is Kulu going to become a regular in CAM?

We can categorise our CMs into three groups pretty easily. 6, 8 and 10 positions, with some being interchangeable to other positions e.g. Lolo (6 or 8) Gio (8 or 10) and Kulu (10 or RW).

6: Bissouma, Bentancur, Skipp
8: Sarr, Lo Celso, Hojbjerg (Devine)
10: Maddison, Kulusevski (Donley)

Outliers: Skipp, Hojbjerg - For me neither of these 2 fit what we need from our 6 or 8 roles and should therefore be moved on. Skipp seems to want to stay but he could easily play CDM/CM for a lower/mid-table Prem team.

I think Bentancur is the key to our midfield. If Lolo is going to be a 6, along with Biss, then we don't need to worry about adding another 6 and going for Gallagher makes sense, particularly if we feel Lo Celso is likely to leave in the future. If Lolo is more likely to be an 8, then we really don't need Gallagher when we already have him, Sarr and Lo Celso (if he stays), not to mention Devine coming through. I personally like him in either position and I believe a really good number 6 is harder to find that a good number 8.

If I had to choose right now, I would want us to sell Hojbjerg (which seems likely) and Skipp (less likely) and add Gallagher because he very much plays in a way that is similar to Sarr, albeit a little more refined I feel. He's high energy, box to box. He showed at Palace that he can score goals from midfield and at Chelsea this season has done a bit of everything, including being creative.

Next season we should be in Europe and will need strong depth. We will have that with this midfield:

6: Bissouma, Bentancur
8: Gallagher, Sarr, Lo Celso (Devine)
10: Maddison, Kulusevski (Donley)

 

[mil1lion]

For those of you respectfully putting up arguments Gallagher v Biss, Kulu, Devine (especially) along with Donley are missing the point hugely Gallagher is not a 6! Don’t tell me he is.

Devine will be here next season. If we are saying he has a higher ceiling than Devine, I will not even bother to argue that. Donley I said will soon be there. And I tell you now, Gallagher potential wise don’t match him. Conclusion splash out 45-55 million on him, then watch how many of our top academy players will want out, they are not stupid. We don’t have a 6 coming through good enough, and that’s what we need.

If we get a 6 instead of an 8 how does that make much difference to the academy players? Get a 6 and then it just means Bentancur moves to 8 and they will have Bentancur and Sarr to compete with instead of Gallagher and Sarr.