Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher: Captain, leader and in limbo
https://theathletic.com/4874357/2023/09/20/Chelsea-gallagher-maatsen-contract/
Amid the frustration of Chelsea’s familiar failings against Bournemouth, one of the few interesting subplots was confirmation that Conor Gallagher is Mauricio Pochettino’s third choice as captain this season, ahead of several more likely candidates.
With newly minted club captain Reece James sidelined by injury and Ben Chilwell a substitute, Pochettino still had the option of giving the armband to either of the two oldest players in his young squad, Thiago Silva or Raheem Sterling. There was also Enzo Fernandez who, even at 22, already carries a real presence at the heart of this Chelsea team as a World Cup winner.
Fernandez might also have been the easier political choice given that his talent and price tag ensure he will be a key part of this ambitious Chelsea project for as long as he wants to be.
Starting a Premier League game with Gallagher as captain was a far bigger statement, coming so soon after a summer transfer window in which he felt oddly expendable.
Yet it was also building upon a trend that began on Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the United States, where Gallagher played more minutes than anyone else. That was admittedly in part because deals for Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia were not yet finalised and Lesley Ugochukwu was a late addition to the tour squad, but it was also because Pochettino values the tenacity, personality and tactical versatility that the Cobham graduate brings to his team.
As one of only three outfielders to have started all five of Chelsea’s matches this season (the others being Axel Disasi and Levi Colwill), Gallagher’s prominence under Pochettino stands out because he could so easily have been patrolling another Premier League midfield. Transfer talks with Tottenham Hotspur in the final days of the window were real. Earlier in the summer, West Ham United also felt Gallagher was gettable as they recruited for the post-Declan Rice era.
Neither club ultimately matched Chelsea’s asking price, believed to be in the region of £50million ($61.8m). But, while the club were resolved to only consider a sale on their terms, the fraught nature of Gallagher’s summer has created an awkward situation for all parties involved.
The extensive nature of Chelsea’s squad overhaul in the last two transfer windows means that, incredibly, 24 of Pochettino’s 27-man senior group are contracted at Stamford Bridge until at least June 2026. The three exceptions are Silva (a unique case at 38 years old), Gallagher and fellow academy product Ian Maatsen who, not coincidentally, also endured a summer of heavy transfer speculation.
Gallagher is out of contract in June 2025, and Maatsen is effectively on the same timeline by virtue of a one-year extension option that Chelsea hold. Both are now in a contractual state that Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital do not want to exist at Stamford Bridge: players who have made it inside the final two years of their deals without being renewed or sold.
Keeping those opposing options open in big-picture talks with players and their representatives is no easy task, as co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have found. Being relentlessly linked with other clubs has not exactly made it simpler to broach a possible contract extension with Gallagher, and there are no live talks.
Maatsen turned down several offers to renew in the summer, including one for a six-year contract with a club option for a seventh, before Burnley’s deadline-day approach. That does not mean either player wants to leave Chelsea, only that some variables are yet to align in favour of a new agreement.
One of those is that the pecking order of Pochettino’s new-look squad remains unclear. Gallagher is starting every Chelsea game right now, but he knows the situation could change significantly when Caicedo, Lavia and Carney Chukwuemeka return from injury.
Maatsen’s path is muddied by positional uncertainty. Pochettino’s use of Colwill at left-back does not help the 21-year-old Dutchman, nor does the failure to offload Marc Cucurella. Competing for attacking midfield minutes looks no easier with Cole Palmer added to a mix that already included Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk and Sterling, and will be thickened further when Chukwuemeka and Christopher Nkunku are back.
Neither Maatsen nor Gallagher is particularly incentivised to commit to a long-term extension. Maatsen turned down the offer from Burnley, who met Chelsea’s valuation, in part because of questions about the club’s Premier League viability and manager Vincent Kompany’s long-term future at Turf Moor. There is a belief that bigger, more established top-flight clubs could come calling in January.
Gallagher’s stock will continue to rise if he closes out 2023 as a regular starter for Chelsea, which could have the double effect of strengthening his hand in potential contract negotiations while intensifying the market for his services in the winter window. His preference has always been to play for his boyhood club, but he will be guided by what is best for his career. Maintaining his place in the England squad is a significant factor.
Chelsea consider both players’ situations to be open. Gallagher has the chance to play his way into a more secure long-term role at Stamford Bridge under Pochettino, while Maatsen’s presence formed part of the club’s thinking in sanctioning Lewis Hall’s divisive departure for Newcastle United.
In the future, there is a determination to avoid the acrimonious circumstances that surrounded Mason Mount’s defection to Manchester United with one year remaining on his Chelsea deal. Boehly and Clearlake believe their policy of hyper-long contracts will help the club to achieve this in time, even if it does not prevent players from agitating to leave Stamford Bridge or be given renewals on improved terms.
None of that applies in the cases of Gallagher and Maatsen.
What happens with both players from here is impossible to predict, and their level of involvement under Pochettino may not be an entirely solid indicator of the decisions that Chelsea ultimately make on their futures.
