With West Brom being the first team on the managerial carousel this season, there have been calls to pull Conor Gallagher. The Chelsea youngster is fine.
Chelsea has a few players out on loan at Premier League clubs this season. For the most part, these players are at clubs struggling or expected to struggle. Ross Barkley is perhaps the only exception in Aston Villa’s high flying year. Of course, whether they are expected to struggle or are actually struggling, playing time and playing well during that time is more important.
Of course, there is always a fear when a manager is sacked. New managers rarely back the players of other clubs regardless of quality. They would rather develop their own talent than someone else’s. That comes with a belief that they will be their long term, should they manage to stay in the league.
There should be no worries with Sam Allardyce. While he allegedly gets 18 months should West Brom survive (ergo, he will get 18 months), Allardyce is not going to turn his back on a good player that will help him accomplish his goal. Cries to recall Conor Gallagher, perhaps the best Premier League loanee this season, should fall on deaf ears. West Brom is still the right place for him and Allardyce can be the right manager to help him develop.
Backing up a second, there is a fear to have a loaned player at a team playing “bad” football. Which, of course, makes no sense in West Brom’s case. The situation for Gallagher playing pretty in a losing team for Slaven Bilic is little different than playing ugly in a team that will survive. If he’s playing, how he plays is secondary if he is still doing well.
Attached to this idea is bringing him back to the Chelsea squad for the second half of the season which is particularly ill advised. What a player needs most at his age is game time to grow. That will not happen at Chelsea. He would be a depth option in midfield assuming the Blues stick with the 4-3-3, but he will go from starting every match to maybe starting once every four or five. There are already rumors of a Billy Gilmour loan (thankfully repeatedly dismissed, but still present). How can another player come into that midfield and get the time they need?
Furthermore, Allardyce is a very unfairly judged manager. As the game moved on to Pep Guardiola’s possession play, it ignored that sometimes doing the simple things exceptionally well yield results too. Allardyce isn’t the relegation escape artist that he is for lack of talent. There is a reason why team after team turns to him instead of going a more radical direction. Managers that have been relegated recently like Eddie Howe may be the future, but it doesn’t mean Allardyce is the past.
At West Brom, Gallagher will still be playing plenty. That is the major checkmark. He’ll be playing a simpler game, sure, but learning to get the basics perfect can improve his game massively when he comes into a team using more advanced ideas like counter pressing and positional play. Make no mistake, he will return to Chelsea a better player after six months of Allardyce than he would with 12 months of Bilic of six months on the Chelsea bench. Next summer will be his time to fight his way into the squad, not this winter.