Everton suffer blow in pursuit of Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher
Everton have suffered a major blow as their target Conor Gallagher has stated that he will be staying at Chelsea this summer.
The Toffees have been linked heavily with a move to the 22-year-old in the ongoing transfer window, and were said to have even held talks over the switch.
Gallagher, while talking to Sky Sports as quoted in a report by Liverpool Echo, has revealed that he will stay at the club and compete for his place in the squad.
“It has been good and obviously back at Chelsea, I have got to try and impress and show what I can do, but yeah, so far, so good,” he said.
“I loved playing there [with Crystal Palace] last season, but I feel like I’m ready to make the step up for Chelsea this season.
“The boss here has said he wants me around and he thinks I’m good enough. Hopefully, I can play a big part this season for Chelsea.”
In the 2021-22 season, Gallagher was extremely influential for Palace where he 34 appearances in the Premier League, scoring eight goals and providing three assists. He had a pass completion rate of 81.2%, averaged 1.5 shots, 1.1 key pass and 1.3 dribbles per game. [Whoscored].
Gallagher’s great performances at Selhurst Park made him a nominee for the PFA Young Player of the Year award and he had a rating of 6.80.
Those numbers show why the development would be another serious blow for Everton as they’ve already missed out on a number of targets ahead of the next season.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see how manager Frank Lampard will decide to move forward in order to ensure that the Toffees will not have another season where they will be involved in a relegation battle, just like they were in the previous campaign where they ended on the 16th position on the points table.