Why Chelsea can’t afford to keep Gallagher, or let him go

Conor Gallagher has been one of Chelsea's most consistent players this season – a homegrown player, regularly capped by England and considered important enough by Stamford Bridge manager Mauricio Pochettino to wear the captain's armband in recent weeks . Yet despite all this, Pochettino is unsure whether Gallagher will still be at the club when the January transfer window closes.

Welcome to the world of financial loopholes, of players seen as pure profits on a balance sheet and where the needs of a manager take second place to the demands of those responsible for making the numbers work.

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If Gallagher's future at Chelsea were to be decided on merit alone, there wouldn't even be a conversation about firing the 23-year-old next month. The fact that his contract expires at the end of the 2024-25 season is obviously an issue that will need to be resolved at some point in the next 12 months.

But with so many big Chelsea signings struggling to establish themselves at the club, the risk of allowing Gallagher to leave in January purely for financial reasons – to the detriment of sound footballing logic – would only damage Pochettino's hopes . to build a successful team at Stamford Bridge. Yet with the transfer window due to open in less than two weeks, the financial benefits of parting ways with Gallagher are precisely why the midfielder's future is out of Pochettino's hands.

It's a decision between the player and the club, to be or not to be,” Pochettino told reporters this week when asked about Gallagher's future at Chelsea. “He is in the starting XI almost every game and one of the captains. For me, he is the type of player the club needs to have.

“He is important because of his values ​​at Chelsea. He comes from the academy, he loves the club and he is very committed. You can see it on the pitch: he runs, he plays, he fights. He does everything to win. He's a really important player that the coaching staff wants to have in the team.”

Sources have, however, told ESPN that Chelsea were open to offers for Gallagher in January, despite him being a key figure in Pochettino's squad. Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United have all been linked with a move by the player.

A senior official from a Premier League rival has told ESPN that it is no secret that a £50million offer would likely be enough to entice Chelsea to offload Gallagher. It would allow the club to rival Arsenal in their pursuit of Brentford striker Ivan Toney, whose suspension for breaching gambling regulations is due to end on January 17.

Chelsea have spent almost £1 billion on 25 players since a Clearlake Capital consortium led by Todd Boehly bought the club from former owner Roman Abramovich in May 2022, so there is a clear need to try to balance accounts in terms of player entries and exits. But while getting rid of one of the many expensive signings who have failed to perform would make more footballing sense than parting ways with Gallagher, the lure of Chelsea's accountants to swap the vice-captain from Pochettino is that any remuneration received for the player would count as a 100% Win on the financial figures.

Given that Gallagher cost Chelsea nothing as an academy player and therefore costs nothing to the balance sheet, a fee of £50 million would be pure profit. If, on the other hand, Chelsea were to offload Mykhailo Mudryk, an £88 million signing from Shakhtar Donetsk last January, they would have to take into account the remaining value of his eight-and-a-half-year contract and any sum remaining due to the Ukrainian club.

There are no such complications with Gallagher: whatever Chelsea receive for the player would reduce much of their transfer deficit in this year's accounts and help them comply with the club's profitability and sustainability rules. the Premier League, which monitor a club's financial transactions. During the summer transfer window, Chelsea raised £110m in transfer fees by parting ways with Mason Mount (£55m, to Manchester United), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£15m, AC Milan), Ethan Ampadu (£7m, Leeds United), Callum. Hudson-Odoi (£5m, Nottingham Forest) and Lewis Hall, whose season-long loan at Newcastle includes a £28m clause requiring them to sign him permanently. Like Gallagher, all of these players were produced by Chelsea's academy, so their transfer fees are pure profit.

Last January window, Gallagher rejected a £40 million move to Everton in order to fight for his place at Chelsea. But under their new owners, Chelsea have adopted a strict policy of getting rid of players before they enter the final year of their contracts, with Mount's summer move to Old Trafford prompted by his refusal to sign a new agreement at Stamford Bridge. With 18 months remaining on his Chelsea contract, Gallagher is entering what clubs consider dangerous territory. Mount's departure is a good example of why Pochettino feels powerless to control Gallagher's future.

From a footballing perspective, allowing Gallagher to leave next month makes absolutely no sense for Chelsea. Even from a financial perspective, his performances so far this season suggest it would be wise to wait until the end of the season before deciding whether he stays or goes.

But Chelsea have taken a different approach to player swaps under the new owners, with huge spending, unusually long contracts and a willingness to treat homegrown players as little more than a financial resource. So, no matter how important Gallagher is to Pochettino, his value on the pitch counts for nothing compared to what he is worth on the balance sheet.