Chelsea have been branded pathetic for their handling of the announcement of Conor Gallagher’s departure and Joao Felix’s arrival.
The Blues posted a heartwarming video in which Gallagher talks about how much playing for the club means to him, alongside clips from his time in the academy through to his time as first-team captain.
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This was in complete contrast to the way the club had engineered his exit by banishing him from the first team and forcing him to retire.
The English midfielder joined Atletico Madrid and was presented at the Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday evening.
Felix moved in the opposite direction as Chelsea had to complete a deal with Atletico for the Gallagher move to happen.
It was announced that the Portuguese striker would be returning ‘home’, although he had previously only been on loan to Stamford Bridge for a short time, but Chelsea decided against signing him permanently at the time.
The Pitch Prospect presenters Hugh Woozencroft and Flex were furious at the way Chelsea handled the whole thing.
Woozencroft said: “To make matters worse, they portrayed Conor Gallagher as a young player at the club who they couldn’t bear to lose. It was heartbreaking to see someone who was one of their own, and they published interviews of him talking about what it meant to him to be a Chelsea player, pictures of him in the academy.
“Heartwarming video from Conor Gallagher’s side but he will look at it and say ‘hang on a minute, that underlines how much I wanted to be a Chelsea player and shows how much you didn’t want me here.’
“How can you look at that and not think that this is a player we want at our football club? That’s crazy, especially when they’ve done the best for you on the football pitch.
“And are they kidding us all? They said he was taking the next step in his football adventure, as if he was going on to bigger and better things and we couldn’t stop him, like when Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale went to Real Madrid.
“It’s crazy to think you couldn’t have kept him.”
Flex added: “Also, in the post by Joao Felix it says ‘back home’. What!? They went to the window and wanted [Samu] Omorodion, but they didn’t quite get him and had to take this guy because they had to do a deal with Atletico, so Gallagher goes the other way.
“To say ‘back home’ after Gallagher’s release is just awful. And they say ‘he belongs at Chelsea’. Chelsea weren’t interested in him two weeks ago.
“If he belongs here and you can’t wait to bring Joao Felix back home to Stamford Bridge and Cobham, why wasn’t he one of your main targets during the transfer window… pathetic.”
Flex added: “Gallagher was their best player last season, after Cole Palmer.
“For much of the season he had the most ball recoveries, the most tackles, covered the greatest distance and wore the captain’s armband.
“He really stood out in a disappointing time for Chelsea. Enzo Fernandes and Moises Caicedo were out, Romeo Lavia was missing. Tell me who was the £100m player in Chelsea’s midfield last year?”
Nobody really knows what will happen next at Chelsea. As the already bloated squad is being reduced, further departures are expected.
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However, this has not stopped them from signing a remarkable 10 players this summer.
In addition to Gallagher, Armando Broja, Trevoh Chalobah and Romelu Lukaku also had to train away from the first team.
Then Enzo Maresca decided that Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell were superfluous and banned them as well.
To make matters worse, Sterling’s number seven shirt was given to Pedro Neto.