CHELSEA’S curious transfer policy faces yet another huge challenge when the window opens next month.
Conor Gallagher is always the first name linked with the exit door at Stamford Bridge even though he is now more important than ever to guiding Chelsea through the latest rocky patch.
Injury to club captain Reece James this week leaves midfielder Gallagher as the only homegrown player in the first team with the experience to help the rookies through rough times.
A club source told SunSport: “He is perhaps the only fit player now who really understands what it means to be a Chelsea player.”
Gallagher, 23, has started every Premier League game he has been available for this season in a midfield that also includes British record signings Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.
Accomplished stars like Raheem Sterling and Thiago Silva play a vital role but are relative newcomers to the club Gallagher has served since he was eight.
Renowned as a formidable trainer, he has shrugged off constant speculation over his future to win over a succession of managers.
It happened this season after Tottenham, Everton and West Ham failed with bids of around £40 million in the summer to sign the occasional England international.
Head coach Mauricio Pochettino even promoted Gallagher to captain, which came as a shock to the lifelong Chelsea fan from Surrey.
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But now Pochettino is talking up transfers with the winter window opening on New Year’s Day and Chelsea languishing in 12th place.
An experienced striker has been talked about for weeks but that will cost big money and Gallagher is the most valuable asset at the moment.
Costing nothing to sign as an academy graduate, any fee Chelsea receive will be pure profit in physical terms and for the benefit of financial fair play.
Fellow ex-academy kids Armando Broja, Trevoh Chalobah and Ian Maatsen would help the bank account but have played much less first team football than Gallagher.
Having splurged £1 billion on new players in the past 18 months with little to show for it so far, club owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali must balance the books and the squad for Pochettino.
Flogging Gallagher will bring in a few quid but will rob Chelsea of a key player who bleeds blue just when they need stability most.
Sunday’s crushing 2-0 defeat by Everton leaves them just ten points off the bottom three ahead of a treacherous home game with rejuvenated Sheffield United this Saturday.
Chelsea fans are crying out for a little of what they grew accustomed to with previous squads.
Winning aside, they are demanding players who will give everything for the club.
A source said: “Conor cannot be a captain like John Terry. He won’t do the things that Frank Lampard did and he is not Gianfranco Zola.
“But he is regarded as the best trainer at Chelsea by quite a few people because he has grown up there seeing the likes of JT and Frank be on it every single day.
“He didn’t ask to be made captain and was quite surprised when it came his way. But he accepted the challenge like he does with everything.”
Boehly and Behdad face the added dilemma of Gallagher’s contract which has 18 months left.
This time last year, midfielder Mason Mount was in the same position.
The Americans failed to tie down a player with Chelsea in his DNA who ended up leaving last summer in a £60 million deal with Manchester United.
That is ready cash in the bank but as each player who has been nurtured through the ranks at Stamford Bridge departs, something other than money changes hands.
Gallagher is ready to sign a new deal and has said so in public. The player’s issue is would he be a first team regular if the cursed injury list at Chelsea ever clears?
Boehly and Eghbali must decide whether to take short term financial gain to pay for another incomer to join their vastly inexperienced squad or do they nail Gallagher to the Chelsea flag.
