The appointment of Frank Lampard has helped highlight the sheer depth of talent emerging from the Chelsea FC academy, with the former Blues midfielder offering Premier League game-time to a number of younger players this season. The West London club have been hamstrung by a transfer ban which was issued by UEFA earlier in the year, although it has paved the way for a number of academy graduates to nail down a spot in the starting eleven.
With Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James and Fikayo Tomori all seemingly acclimatized to life in the top flight, fans are understandably excited to see which players will follow in their footsteps. Conor Gallagher is one of a plethora of teenager talents who have caught the eye in the Championship this season and the Charlton loanee appears to have all of the credentials to succeed at Stamford Bridge.
Conor Gallagher’s thunderbolt crowned an emphatic @CAFCofficial performance ⚡️#OktoberQuest | #EFLonQuest – Saturday’s at 9pm | #cafc pic.twitter.com/YajEjS6tu4
— Quest (@QuestTV) October 19, 2019
The midfielder has been widely praised for his performances at the Valley this season and even managed to secure the English Football League’s Young Player of the Month award back in August. He’s netted five times in his first 16 appearances for the club and has been one of the standout players in Lee Bowyer’s over-achieving side so far. He is able to get himself into scoring positions and has shown a remarkable amount of composure in front of goal. Some younger players tend to struggle with the physicality of the division, but the 19-year-old has been able to hold his own so far and has proved incredibly difficult to knock off the ball.
Gallagher was also part of the England Under-17 squad which won the World Cup in 2017 where he played alongside Chelsea team-mates Callum Hudson-Odoi and Marc Guehi. He is yet to make an appearance for the Blues, although he was given a place on the bench for May’s Europa League final.
Although many Chelsea fans have called for the club to recall him from his loan spell, it seems highly likely that Gallagher will spend the remainder of the season with the Addicks. The South Londoners have made a good start on their return to the second tier and they sit 11th after 16 games. Despite losing just six times, the bookmakers aren’t expecting last year’s League One play-off winners to achieve back-to-back promotions. They are 40/1 to return to the Premier League this year, yet are just 8/1 with Space Casino to end the season in the bottom three.
At Chelsea, Gallagher is viewed as a natural successor to Ross Barkley, whose low-key performances have failed to win over the fans since his arrival from Everton. The youngster penned a three-year contract with his parent club in the summer and is highly likely to feature in Frank Lampard’s plans for next season. After a blistering start to the campaign, the Epsom-born midfielder’s all-action displays have begun to ever-so-slightly tail off in recent weeks and he must now prove that he’s able to sustain a consistent level of form on a weekly basis.
He looks set for an extremely bright future at the highest level and playing competitive Championship football on a weekly basis will surely be beneficial going forward. The aforementioned James, Tomori and Mount all plied their trade in the second tier last season and Conor Gallagher would love to follow that well-trodden path and play under his ‘footballing idol’ Frank Lampard
