Chelsea’s hierarchy value 23-year-old player more for his potential sale price than his on-pitch contributions

The Chelsea hierarchy are more excited by the potential sale price of Conor Gallagher than his actual ability on the pitch.

That is according to a report from The Athletic.

They claim that the Chelsea board do value Conor Gallagher more for his potential sale price than his on-pitch contributions.

The 23-year-old Blues star is a product from the academy and pure profit on the balance sheet, so we weren’t too surprised to hear him linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge during the summer transfer window.

However, the England international has stayed with Chelsea and is firmly part of Mauricio Pochettino’s squad. In fact, he’s played every game so far this season.

We’ve seen a lot of Chelsea’s homegrown talents move on and sold for profit under this ownership, which is a pattern some fans are worried will continue.

There’s still a core of academy player scattered across the current first-team squad. Hopefully, that path from Cobham to the senior group isn’t cut off altogether.

Gallagher’s situation is a bit more unique because he’s getting plenty of minutes at Stamford Bridge and the jury is still out on whether he’s the long-term solution.

It’s worth pointing out that Pochettino clearly does see something in the midfielder because he keeps playing him, though. Ultimately, we’d prefer the Blues head coach to get the final say on his future.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano previously reported on X that Gallagher never got close to joining Tottenham despite interest from them this summer.

The sensible move would be to give the box-to-box central midfielder a fair shot at cementing his spot in Pochettino’s line-up before even thinking about a transfer further down the line.