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Thomas Tuchel set to lose ‘brilliant’ Chelsea talent as Newcastle eye transfer raid amid takeover
Newly-rejuvenated Newcastle United are reportedly interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher as one of their first signings following the £300 million Saudi-led takeover announced earlier this week.
Gallagher, 21, has arguably been the bright spot in Patrick Vieira’s indifferent south London outfit so far this season, as they have had a mixed start to the 2021/22 campaign.
His individual performances have reportedly caught the attention of Newcastle United, who are aiming for English and European football dominance within the next five years, as Amanda Staveley hinted in her first interview since the takeover was confirmed on Thursday.
“Newcastle United deserves to be top of the Premier League. We want to get there. It will take time, but we will get there,” Staveley told Sky Sports.
“We’re proud to be part of the Premier League. It’s an incredibly competitive league, which we love. Premier League football is the best in the world, and Newcastle United is the best team in the world.
“We want to see it get those trophies, obviously. At top of the Premier League, in Europe, but to get trophies means patience, investment, time. We want everybody to work with us to build the club towards what it needs to be.”
Achieving a top-four finish within the next two seasons will be part of the process to help the Magpies return to the top, and the Saudi-led consortium believes Gallagher could be the first piece of the jigsaw, according to the latest reports.
According to the The Daily Mail, the 21-year-old is on a list of potential midfielder targets that the Newcastle board is considering, along with Leicester City’s Youri Tielemans, ahead of a January move.
This may come as a relief to Palace fans, who will be hoping that the latter of the two options is chosen on this occasion, implying that they may have a better chance of luring the former West Brom loanee away from west London permanently come the summer.
If the two aforementioned clubs, Newcastle and the Eagles, were to compete head-to-head for the signing of the England Under-21 international, the £320billion-worth Magpies would likely blow the south Londoners out of the water in terms of the transfer race.
According to transfermarkt, the fee required to persuade Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia to let go of the midfielder could be in the region of £14 million.
Gallagher is currently away from the capital with the Three Lions’ Under-21 squad, which recently surrendered a two-goal lead to Slovenia in the qualification stage for the 2023 European Championships.
Prior to the game, manager Lee Carsley praised Gallagher and teammate Marc Guehi for making the risky decision to leave SW6 in search of regular first-team football.
“It’s really important for their development that they are trusted to play in the first teams, that they are playing at such a high level and that they’re able to manage the emotion that comes with playing in the first team and the up and down with results and coping with that,” Carsley said.
“Those two are very level-headed players and watching their games at Palace, they’re obviously very important to Crystal Palace as well and we’re aware of that.”
Alan Shearer, a Match of the Day pundit, has also praised Gallagher, most recently after the 2-2 draw with West Ham.
Shearer said: “He said he wants to be an all-round midfielder – and he showed that today he’s got it in his locker.
“We need to see more of this because that’s what it was, whether it was playing balls in behind, whether it was winning balls for his team in the midfield. He is setting Palace on the front foot. Or whether it was arriving into the box at just the right time. Perfect timing and that’s a really clever finish.
“Watch this goal here [second goal]. Touch with the right foot, flick with the left foot and then again the finish. That is without doubt one of the Goals Of The Month contenders. It’s a magnificent goal, the touch and then the ability to finish it off the way he did.
“Then Palace could’ve won it. It was a brilliant ball in by Gallagher and [Marc] Guehi should actually put that in the back of the net.
“They’ll expect more of that this season from him, very impressive.”
If this deal to Tyneside goes through in the summer, it could be the start of a potential raid on Chelsea, with the Geordies willing to spend an additional £130 million on players from the European Champions who can help take the club to the next level.
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Thomas Tuchel set to lose ‘brilliant’ Chelsea talent as Newcastle eye transfer raid amid takeover
