23. Conor Gallagher

[Vesper 28,802]

I am sad he is leaving

After Trevoh also departs (and Broja) 

We are down to only Reece as an true Chels academy main player, unless Bashir Humphreys breaks through (and Bashir was already 16yo then he joined us)

[TheHulk 1,855]

11 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Another mount Conor comparison. 🙄

Repeat after me: "Conor hasn't done a thing; Conor hasn't won shit." it's not hard. 😃

If it wasn't for Lampard making him his nephew he would be playing in Championship today, that's the reality. Glad we got rid of him and didn't end up like Lingard and McTominay.

[robsblubot 3,504]

5 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

If it wasn't for Lampard making him his nephew he would be playing in Championship today, that's the reality. Glad we got rid of him and didn't end up like Lingard and McTominay.

Yup, another "fan" who does not like silverware.

What you think of his skillset should be irrelevant when he brings the goods and helps win silverware, the biggest there is, for the team you claim to support. After all, the whole point here is to win silverware, isn't it?

Already shared his impressive numbers in that CL run; I have already shared his impressive numbers in the PL that same season. Conor hasn't done anything remotely close to that yet and that's a fact, and why I think the comparisons are silly. They don't even play in the same role.
I'm talking about accomplishments here, not empirical options of 'what ifs" in a parallel universe.

[TheHulk 1,855]

8 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Yup, another "fan" who does not like silverware.

What you think of his skillset should be irrelevant when he brings the goods and helps win silverware, the biggest there is, for the team you claim to support. After all, the whole point here is to win silverware, isn't it?

Already shared his impressive numbers in that CL run; I have already shared his impressive numbers in the PL that same season. Conor hasn't done anything remotely close to that yet and that's a fact, and why I think the comparisons are silly. They don't even play in the same role.
I'm talking about accomplishments here, not empirical options of 'what ifs" in a parallel universe.

"He brings" acting as if he carried us to a CL title, half the team had more impressive performances than him.

I remember vividly this loser failing to make the easiest pass in history against Tottenham to Werner which ended with us going to penalties and this wanker managed to miss the penalty as well. This fraud couldn't even master the basic passes let alone the harder one, terrible player glad he is getting exposed nowdays where he can't hide behind the Chelsea fanbase when he was putting up shitter after shitter.

[robsblubot 3,504]

32 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

"He brings" acting as if he carried us to a CL title, half the team had more impressive performances than him.

I remember vividly this loser failing to make the easiest pass in history against Tottenham to Werner which ended with us going to penalties and this wanker managed to miss the penalty as well. This fraud couldn't even master the basic passes let alone the harder one, terrible player glad he is getting exposed nowdays where he can't hide behind the Chelsea fanbase when he was putting up shitter after shitter.

Please checks his stats, numbers not opinions, in 21/22 season both in CL and in the PL. Sorry, I'm not going to discuss numbers here.

For the record, I have no problem discussing and handling different opinions (that's why we are all here); I'm just not into rewriting history myself. Plenty of players whom I thought weren't that impressive won big silverware and I'll always respect that.

Edited August 5 by robsblubot

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

Conor went from £50k per week to reports on the low £200k to high reports £230k. Good for him.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[Fulham Broadway 16,846]

Sent message to Chelsea fans;

“To everyone at Chelsea, thank you for making my dreams come true. It’s been an absolute honor every time I put on the shirt, and it was a dream come true to captain the team on many occasions. I loved every moment.

“These memories will last forever. I appreciate all the love and support from the fans. Hearing the chant of my name at the Bridge is a special feeling, and the banner you displayed meant the world to me. Thank you for everything. I wish the club all the best for the future, and I hope to see you all soon at Stamford Bridge!”

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

With James Rodriguez close to Atletico, Conor is great signing for them because he runs for 2 people unlike James who is too cool to run.

Edited August 22 by NikkiCFC

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[Vesper 28,802]

2 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

 

Simeone has been hitting the bong too much

[ZAPHOD2319 4,477]

 

[Vesper 28,802]

Conor Gallagher revels in swift rise to hero status at Atlético Madrid

Midfielder is the first Englishman to score for the club in 101 years but that is only part of the reason why he is admired

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/sep/16/conor-gallagher-atletico-madrid-hero-score

The first Englishman to score for Atlético Madrid in 101 years was “buzzing” on Sunday night, supporters singing his name and his coach calling him the player they needed. “It was really special,” Conor Gallagher said after his first start at the Metropolitano, where 61,752 fans who are now his fans watched him guide the ball past Giorgi Mamardashvili to set Atlético on course for a 3-0 victory against Valencia. Thousands more watching on TV voted him La Liga’s man of the match. “He’s going to be good for us,” the goalkeeper Jan Oblak said, speaking for everyone. “He makes us better,” Diego Simeone said.

Gallagher completed a neat move five minutes before half-time, slipping into the area and collecting Rodrigo De Paul’s gorgeous ball through Cristhian Mosquera’s legs to deliver a smooth finish. In his third game since a €42m (£35.5m) move from Chelsea that was done, undone and then done again, he had his first goal. No Englishman had scored for Atlético since someone called Drinkwater, whose first name time forgot, hit three against Ferroviária in the semi-final of the Copa Federación Centro in 1923. Kieran Trippier is the only Englishman to play for them since, and he didn’t score. He did, though, win the league.

“This a very proud moment, a really special night for me and my family,” Gallagher said. “Hopefully I can take this, get confidence from it and build on it.”

The Metropolitano erupted, delighted. No one more so than the small girl in the front row of the north stand who watched wide-eyed as Antoine Griezmann, on his way to celebrate with Gallagher, collected the ball from the net and handed it to her. Teammates came to embrace the Englishman and supporters started chanting his name. “Everyone was just buzzing for me: it was a really, really special moment,” Gallagher said. “Thanks to my teammates and everyone at the club. Hopefully there are many more.

“The manager plays me to my strengths, I believe. I give a lot by running in behind and making space for others, creating space on the pitch for us to play. I was quite high up, trying to create chances and get in the box and I scored so I’m very happy,” Gallagher told ESPN. But it wasn’t just about the goal. As he put it: “I try to do a bit of everything” – and that is what has endeared him to everyone.

On Sunday Gallagher started on the left of a narrow midfield three and ended on the right, although he was usually the most advanced of them, close to the forwards, and played 90 minutes for the first time here. He completed 83% of his passes, won nine duels and made all four of his tackles. No one escaped him, although the little girl in the tunnel who at the last minute decided she wasn’t that keen on being a mascot after all almost did. Both of the Madrid sports dailies went with Oasis puns: Gallagher had provided the music, they said.

“He is a hard-working player who has quality and a good ability to arrive in the area from deep and who never fails to give everything in every ball,” Simeone said. “He has come here with enthusiasm and desire: we need players like him in the middle of the pitch because he makes us better.” The day that Gallagher made his debut as a sub, against Girona, the coach had sidled up to him on the touchline and whispered a solitary word, in English: “Intense.”

“He’s always at 100%,” Oblak said. “He gives us a lot of intensity and our fans like that.”

Like it? They love it. Early in that first appearance for Atlético he dashed up the left, reached the edge of the area, got tackled, got up again, sprinted after his assailant, and took out Yangel Herrera, the place roaring as the Girona midfielder hit the floor. The overwhelming feeling is that here’s a player who is the perfect fit, for the club and the coach, something very Atlético about him. They have taken to calling him Pitbull, in the stands at least; the dressing room is different. “It’s just the fans but it’s a good one; I like it,” Gallagher said.

AS said: “The Metropolitano is mad about the Englishman; not just because of the goal but his attitude on the pitch: a player who is direct, presses, wins duels, robs the ball, seeks space. He never pulls out of a single run and he finished the game exhausted.” Marca described him as a player who “doesn’t back down and is a safety net for his teammates”.

“Gallagher has landed on his feet,” El País wrote. “A midfielder who works so hard, when he gets near the area he grows because of his intuition and his shooting, his ability to step into the box and do damage. He’s not an exquisite No 10 but he is a No 8 in many moments and there is nothing that enthuses Diego Simeone more than a midfielder who has the ability to score goals, and he has it. Like Trippier, he has that British passion for the game that enchants the fans.”

And like Drinkwater, now he has the goal to go with it. “He didn’t need to score to become a new idol at the Metropolitano: the respect and admiration for his new badge that oozes out of everything he does had already delighted the fans and the coaching staff,” Marca said. “His goal was just the icing on the cake of a promising arrival at the Metropolitano. Who better to provide the music than a Gallagher. Just as Liam marked an era fronting Oasis, Conor is ready to leave his mark at Atlético.” In AS, Picu Díaz insisted that the England midfielder would prove the signing of the season.

“It’s a big change, very different for me, but I am excited to take on the challenge of coming to Spain, learning the language and playing in La Liga,” Gallagher said. “It’s a work in progress of course. I am still learning every side of it – the language, the football, the culture – but I am really enjoying it. Every top team is similar in a lot of ways: hard work is one of the main things and talent is another. [But] the football is slightly different here. We pride ourselves on great team spirit and we have shown that so far this season.

“I have to thank all the Atléti fans for how they have welcomed me to the club and how they have shown their appreciation in the few matches I have played. I think they are a club that really appreciates passion and hard work and I try to do that every single game. I am really happy they have seen what I am like as a player and hopefully I can continue to make them happy.”

 

Edited September 16 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 16,846]

Simeone loves the attitude of Conor Gallagher, full of praise for the summer signing after he scored his first goal for Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

The England international opened the scoring in the first-half of a 3-0 win over Valencia 

[Vesper 28,802]

Conor Gallagher interview on feeling ‘wanted and appreciated’ at Atletico Madrid after Chelsea limbo

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773872/2024/09/18/conor-gallagher-Chelsea-atletico-interview/

“It was definitely worth the wait,” says Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher, with the sun shining on their training ground in the leafy suburbs of the Spanish capital.

The Athletic has just asked Gallagher how he feels after scoring his first goal for his new club in Sunday’s 3-0 La Liga win against visitors Valencia at the Estadio Metropolitano.

“The wait” was a reference to a tough few weeks for Gallagher in August, when his €42million (£35.5m/$47m) move from Chelsea hung in the balance. There was a real possibility the 24-year-old England international could find himself excluded from any first-team football for the 2023-24 season.

GO DEEPER

Inside Conor Gallagher's chaotic wait for his Chelsea future to be resolved

When it’s put to Gallagher that he has taken a step up in his career and arrived at a place where he is truly appreciated, he agrees.

“I’ve felt very wanted and appreciated, which is important for any footballer,” he says.

“Chelsea are a huge football club, one of the biggest in the world, along with Atletico. But I have taken that exciting step of playing Champions League football and challenging for trophies. It just builds me with even more confidence and happiness to play my best football.”

That wait to become an Atletico player feels like a long time ago now for Gallagher, who speaks glowingly about his start to life in Spain.

“I’m really happy to be here and I’m settling in well,” he says. “I’ve loved my first few weeks. I knew Atletico was always a massive club, a top club in La Liga and doing well in the Champions League. So I was excited to join.

“It was really good to win against Valencia and score my first goal. Hopefully, we can build on this and I can gain more confidence.”

Gallagher was earmarked early this summer as one of Atletico’s top midfield targets, with his box-to-box style fitting the profile coach Diego Simeone wanted to add to his team. Chelsea offered him a stark choice — sign a two-year contract extension, agree to join Atletico or stay but be excluded from the first-team squad.

He arrived in Madrid on August 8 and Atletico even posted images of him training with some of his new team-mates — but the agreement with Chelsea required 20-year-old striker Samu Omorodion to move the other way. When Omorodion’s transfer fell through, Gallagher returned to London, and Atletico explored other options, including Valencia’s Javi Guerra and Mikel Merino, who at that point had yet to join Arsenal from Real Sociedad.

During the hold-up, Valencia’s sporting director Miguel Angel Corona made the explosive claim that Atletico had tried to “get out” of a deal to sign Gallagher — a version of events disputed by both the Madrid club and Chelsea.

It was close to a fortnight before the deal was revived by Chelsea agreeing to buy Joao Felix from Atletico for €60million. It can’t have been an easy time for Gallagher — was his final feeling the wrench of leaving the club who had formed him after 15 years or relief that his time in limbo was over?

“It was just (being) full of excitement to be joining Atletico,” Gallagher says. “When I look back at my memories at Chelsea, I’m very proud and honoured to play for the club. It was time to move on and Atletico is the perfect club to make the next chapter in my career. I feel very lucky and fortunate to be in this position.”

During that period of uncertainty, Gallagher could not train with Chelsea’s first team, so had to work individually at their Cobham base. This was not exactly ideal preparation for Simeone’s physical and intensive pre-season training, which Gallagher had been warned about by England team-mate Kieran Trippier, a 2020-21 La Liga title winner at Atletico.

“Kieran said that training was very intense, very hard,” Gallagher says. “But he knows me well from England and said it’s perfect for me, for how I am as a player and what I am like at training.

“It was tough at the start, the weather was very hot, but I’m quite a fit player, I’m able to adapt to the conditions and the intensity that the manager likes me to play at. That’s no problem and it’s only going to get better.”

---

Hours after being flown to Madrid by Atletico for the second time, Gallagher was unveiled alongside fellow new arrivals Julian Alvarez, Robin Le Normand and Alexander Sorloth at a spectacular presentation event at the Metropolitano.

Thirty-thousand Atletico fans cheered as Gallagher was escorted from the players’ tunnel by a convoy of Harley-Davidson riders, with Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle blaring out and fireworks sparking across the night sky.

“It was all a bit of a surprise,” Gallagher says with a smile. “I didn’t think it would be as good and as big as it was. It was very exciting, a very, very nice welcome.

“It was definitely different. In the Premier League, they don’t do welcomes like this. It was very special, and they did it for every new player — the women and the men. It made all of the new players feel at home straight away.”

During the ceremony, Atletico’s new No 4 was introduced over the loudspeaker as a “pitbull” who would bring “new lungs” to the team.

“I think that (the pitbull nickname) was something Atletico made up,” Gallagher says. “Some people in England call me a dog, because of how I play on the pitch. Sometimes I just run after every ball, like a dog does in the park. It kind of stuck. (Atletico) took it from there. I don’t mind. I take it as a compliment.”

The supporters have already warmed to Gallagher’s style of play. On his debut against Girona, he earned his first roars of appreciation for a sequence when he carried the ball towards the opposition box, lost it to Yangel Herrera, but then chased back and upended the Venezuelan midfielder.

“Atletico is perfect to showcase my abilities,” says Gallagher. “The fans and the manager and my team-mates appreciate hard work and passion on the football pitch — I can bring a lot of that.”

Sunday’s comprehensive 3-0 win against Valencia showcased another side to this Atletico team. Gallagher’s opening goal was a tidy finish set up by Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul’s perfectly timed and weighted assist after a passing move orchestrated by Antoine Griezmann.

Fans used to thinking of Simeone’s Atletico as a ‘dogs of war’ team might have been taken aback at the technical quality of the move, but not Gallagher. He says his first memory of Atletico is their 4-1 win against Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, when striker Radamel Falcao scored a hat-trick.

“I’m not surprised,” Gallagher says. “Every top club has a lot of technical and talented footballers. The manager has his style of football. It’s brilliant, and I’m really excited to keep working with him and understand more how I can help the team.”

Simeone, a 108-cap Argentina midfielder himself back in the day, has been working closely with Gallagher, offering instructions and advice and helping him understand what his role in the team should be.

“We need a translator to help the communication, but soon I’ll be able to understand his Spanish,” says Gallagher, who has started language lessons.

“He understands my game well, what I’m best at, and what I’m not so good at. The last few games he has told me my strengths, and what I should be doing on the pitch, which has really helped me feel confident and comfortable in my role in my team.”

Against Valencia, his first full 90 minutes for Atletico, Gallagher began to the left of a narrow midfield three. He was urged to break forward into the penalty area, as he did when becoming the first Englishman ever to score for the club in La Liga.

It was reminiscent of Gallagher’s role on loan at Crystal Palace from Chelsea during the 2021-22 season, when he scored eight goals in 34 Premier League games under another former elite midfielder in Patrick Vieira.

“(Simeone) asks me to get in the box when I can,” says Gallagher. “And that’s what I try to do. I was lucky enough to get the good pass from Rodrigo and get my first goal. Hopefully, I can continue to do that, and get some more goals.”

Atletico begin their Champions League campaign tomorrow (Thursday) at home against German visitors RB Leipzig. Then there is the first ‘derbi’ of the season against Real Madrid at the Metropolitano on September 29. That could mean a first meeting in La Liga with England colleague Jude Bellingham.

“I’ve not seen Jude since I moved to Madrid, but we’ll have a good chat the next time I see him,” says Gallagher. “I’m really excited for (the derby). Jude is an incredible footballer and a top guy as well. Any time I play against him is going to be a difficult game.”

That game against the reigning Spanish and European champions will be a tough test for this new-look Atletico. They spent more than €200million this summer on Gallagher, ex-Manchester City striker Alvarez, Spain’s European Championship-winning centre-back Le Normand and Sorloth, the former Crystal Palace striker who scored 23 La Liga goals for Villarreal last season.

A window like that brings expectation and pressure for Atletico to win a trophy this season. But Gallagher’s reply of the “partido a partido” (“game by game”) mantra repeated so often by Simeone shows he is quickly settling in.

“Winning something is the aim,” he says. “The whole team is confident we can do this. The manager has said we need to take one game at a time. There are a lot of games and we need to stay focused. Every game matters so much. That is what we are focused on now — the next game.”

GO DEEPER

Champions League Briefing - Kane and Bayern's records, Endrick's impact and two outrageous goals

[Vesper 28,802]

Always a blue! Conor Gallagher shares special moment with Chelsea academy stars in Madrid after helping Atletico to Champions League victory

Some of Chelsea's young academy players stopped by to watch Conor Gallagher and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Thursday night.

https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/conor-gallagher-Chelsea-academy-madrid-atletico-champions-league/blt517fc2a81ea57938

• Gallagher left Chelsea for Atletico this summer
• Blues academy players watched UCL win
• Players set to compete in Madrid tournament

WHAT HAPPENED?

Gallagher's loyalty to Chelsea was on full display this week after the midfielder took a photo with the club's academy players after Atletico Madrid's win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League. The Blues youngsters were preparing to participate in the Madrid Football Cup alongside some of Europe's best academies and made sure to get a quick snap with the Cobham graduate.

WHAT GALLAGHER SAID

Posting on Instagram, Gallagher said: "Great to see some of the academy boys in Madrid. Appreciate you coming to watch me and the team last night. Good luck in the tournament."

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Gallagher always left his blood, sweat and tears out on the pitch for Chelsea and his latest social media post proves he will always have a strong bond with the London club. He has hit the ground running with Atletico but looks like he will always remain a Blue at heart. 

WHAT NEXT FOR GALLAGHER?

Following Atletico's Champions League win against RB Leipzig, Diego Simeone's side will return to La Liga action on Sunday when they travel to Rayo Vallecano. Gallagher netted his first goal for the Spanish side last weekend against Valencia.

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

One more 😍 so happy for him.

[Vesper 28,802]

31 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

One more 😍 so happy for him.