My thoughts on Media Speculation: Would it be THAT bad IF we sold Gallagher? Does it matter that Lewis Hall is available to face us?

My thoughts on the above and more......

Good Afternoon all,

This is my thoughts on all of the current media speculation and rumours. I am more than happy to chat or debate in the comments, BUT these are JUST opinions on the situations and some of them may be seen as controversial and some people may agree.

Conor Gallagher:

Should Chelsea keep him? YES, our best player so far this season.

Is the reported £50m a good price for him? ABSOLUTELY, in my opinion 5/10m over value.

Does this mean I would sell him? The short answer is NO, BUT I can absolutely see the reasons behind it as I can (in Hindsight) with the likes of Mount and RLC in the summer window that has just passed. That does not mean that I think EVERY academy player should be sold for PURE profit, BUT every player academy or not has their price, as proved with the Mount saga this summer.

IF Gallagher is sol will I be upset? Upset, No. Disappointed, MASSIVELY. Will I Understand? YES.

I love Conor Gallagher and he has been our POTS so far in my opinion, very tightly contested with Cole Palmer. BUT, long term I still do not believe he has the all round game to be an ELITE midfielder for an ELITE side, which is where our project is supposedly heading.

That being said, right now he is an integral part of our team.

We need to fine tune this squad a little bit and to have the maximum financial flexibility a few of the academy boys will have to be sold, Chalobah & Maatsen already look to be gone. Unfortunately Broja & Gallagher could soon follow them out of the door. As much as it feels like we have (albeit not all successful so far) we cannot just sign every player without financial implications or an FFP threat, which is why the academy lads will always be first on the chopping block if we get a good fee and the club do not see them in our long term plans.

As much as it doesn’t seem like it right now, the board, directors etc. are setting us up to be an elite side in the long term (although they may have forgotten about the current day) and to do that we need to steer clear of any financial wrong doings as much as anything else.

My Opinion: Don’t sell now, assess in the summer and sell if an over value offer is received.

Lewis Hall:

Firstly, him being ‘available’ to face us tomorrow is being blown incredibly far out of proportion it is incredible. This is a player who has played a grand total of 24 minutes (out of 540 minutes) during this Newcastle ‘injury crisis’ when all of their players look shattered. An unused sub is the most likely outcome.

Newcastle proceeded to switch Livramento (started at Right-Back) to Left-Back and bring on Emil Krafth to Right-Back and move Dan Burn into Centre-Back rather than bring Lewis Hall on when Fabian Schar got injured at the weekend. That makes him at least 8th choice Defender at Newcastle, if not further down the pecking order. I feel it is quite unlikely he gets any significant minutes tomorrow, if any at all.

Chelsea fans getting their hopes up that he may return in the summer is very far fetched in my opinion, if he isn’t sold to Newcastle, I would guess he will be sold on elsewhere, he has multiple suitors and is another Cobham lad who could easily make 20-30m in pure profit.

I LOVE the player, I think he has an incredibly high ceiling and I would have kept him over every other Left-Back in the summer. We HAVE to remember that he has indicated at both Chelsea and Newcastle that he sees himself as a centre midfielder, both clubs see him as a Left Back. Unless his mind has changed then he will continue to search for first team football in CM.

The only possible way I see him staying at Chelsea beyond the summer (assuming Newcastle move isn’t made permanent) is if he accepts that he needs to transform to Left-Back, 100% and commit to that. In summer 2024 it is very well noted that Chelsea are looking to solve that position, even then I would still guess at his sale.

My Opinion: Excellent player with a high ceiling. Newcastle loan made permanent or he will return and be sold elsewhere.

Noni Madueke

There are plenty of rumours and speculation around the future of Noni Madueke, there are also some factual stories and reports. Even our very own Mr. Si Phillips has had info on Noni’s situation and IF he will be leaving the club in the winter window.

I think there is one hell of a player in there that needs to be let free to run and get a bulk of games behind him. A loan to Germany specifically would be my preferred destination for him. If he can go somewhere on loan and get 15-20 starts in the final stretch of the season, return and re-assess in the summer it would work well for all parties.

Noni has a high ceiling and so much potential. My biggest question mark over him is how far that ceiling reaches, I am hoping he proves me wring but currently I don’t see him as a future top 6 star player, he would be a good squad/rotation option, BUT I cannot see him settling for that.

Poch really doesn’t seem to fancy him and he actually sold him at Spurs. Let’s see how this progresses, BUT I don’t see Noni being at Chelsea on 1st of Feb.

My Opinion: Loan out for 2nd half of the season, re-assess in the summer.

Reece James

I think Reece needs to bite the bullet and have surgery, it wouldn’t lengthen the recovery time by too long, but even if it did, he is missing the majority of the season anyway, why not miss the whole thing?

His sister has very similar issues in her first season at Chelsea, she had the surgery and is now flourishing, fingers crossed when I say this, BUT she has had no major/hamstring injury problems since the surgery.

He is our captain and in my mind he is still the right choice, YES it is frustrating that he is injured a lot currently and is not on the pitch. But I would imagine he is huge behind the scenes and at Cobham which is where the players spend 95% of their time. Ideally we want him on the pitch leading by example, but right now that isn’t possible. We all could do with being a little bit more positive with the captaincy situation.

There was no perfect captain to choose in the summer in my mind and Reece and Thiago were very tight for completely different reasons, lets back our skipper and the whole team and be positive for a change (mainly Twitter/X ‘fans’)

My Opinion: Surgery a must, write the season off if we have to and get past these niggly Hamstring issues.

Thank you all for reading and please lets have some chats/debates in the comments!

Luke Rushbrook