Chelsea’s academy gem: What’s next for Conor Gallagher?
“I did not want to say this in front of him. But he will go right to the very top.” The look on the face of a teenage Frank Lampard was that of shock and sadness. 18 at the time, he wasn’t the midfield metronome he would go on to become at Chelsea soon after. He wasn’t an England centurion, either. He was just a teenage boy looking for someone to show faith in him. Thankfully, when a West Ham United fan criticized him to his face in a club forum, his uncle—Harry Redknapp—came to his rescue.
Whatever you may think about Redknapp, the unwavering faith he showed in the young boy sitting next to him that day would go on to have an impact that he himself could not have imagined. It just goes to show what wonders a little bit of trust can do. Young players need that trust. Talent and hard work often take them only to the threshold, faith can help them take the next step. Conor Gallagher is a youngster looking for the same at the moment.
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Uncertainty surrounds Gallagher presently. The 21-year-old midfielder will return to Chelsea this summer after a successful loan spell at West Bromwich Albion. Whether he will stay is another question altogether. He has been linked with moves away from Stamford Bridge, both permanent and temporary. The player, meanwhile, has stated his desire to stay and fight for his place in the first team. What happens next? It’s anyone’s guess.
Life out on loan
In 2018, 10 years after he took his first steps through the doors of Cobham, Gallagher found himself on the bus en route to the Olympic Stadium in Baku. Chelsea was due to play London rivals Arsenal in the Europa League final, thousands of miles away from home; Gallagher was among the four academy kids called up by Maurizio Sarri to the final squad.
The youngster had trained with the senior team in the weeks leading up to the final and had even made his first appearance for the senior team in a poorly scheduled friendly match. For the midfielder, being named in the team for Baku wasn’t the culmination of his decade-long journey through the academy ranks; rather, it was the first step toward senior football.
Sarri left Chelsea that summer to be replaced by Lampard, the club great promising to focus more on the academy. The pathway from the youth teams to the senior one isn’t always clear at Stamford Bridge. Ever so often, a young, hopeful starlet gets lost in the limbo of lower-league loans or gets shipped off to one of the distant corners of Europe. The new coaching staff promised a change in approach; Gallagher, trusting them to keep their word, committed his future to Chelsea and left on his first loan to Charlton Athletic.
His first month in the Championship, Gallagher won the EFL Young Player of the Month award. Six months, six goals and four assists later, Chelsea pulled the midfielder out of the sinking ship at Charlton and sent him to Steve Cooper’s high-flying Swansea City. Gallagher was tasked with more creative responsibilities by Cooper, and he responded by registering seven assists in the space of five months. Those who watched him knew that the youngster was destined for the top. His first taste of the Premier League experience followed shortly with West Bromwich Albion taking him on loan last term.