Why Chelsea are placing so much faith in Gilmour and Gallagher

Stefan Bienkowski

• 18 Nov 2021 16:42 GMT
• 7 min read

Chelsea are famous for hoovering up young talents and loaning them out to other teams across Europe until they’re ready to either feature for the first team or be sold for a juicy profit.

However, according to Eurosport, the club are adamant that two players in particular that are currently on their books will succeed in making the step up to Thomas Tuchel’s first team in the coming years.

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Those two players are none other than Billy Gilmour and Conor Gallagher. And on paper that certainly makes a lot of sense.

Chelsea will need new centre midfielders soon

Chelsea undoubtedly have one of the best squads in European football. That’s evident from the club’s recent Champions League success and their start to the new Premier League season.

However, when we look at their squad it is clear that Tuchel’s side may need an injection of youth and new talent in the middle of the pitch in the years ahead.

Right now the German manager can call upon Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. However Kante is now 30 years old and Jorginho will be joining him at that age before the end of the year.

And while Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ross Barkley and Saul Niguez may provide decent cover on paper, none of those players will ever demand a starting role in Chelsea’s side.

As such, there’s a clear need for Chelsea to bring through young and talented central midfielders in the next few years. And that’s where Gilmour and Gallagher come into the equation.

They’re quickly proving that they’re ready

Another reason why Chelsea may hold so much stock in both of these players is because they’re both doing tremendously well at the moment.

In the base of Palace’s midfield, Gallagher has already picked up four goals and two assists in just 10 league games and will likely go on to be one of the Premier League’s break-out stars come May.

And while Gilmour hasn’t exactly been afforded the opportunity to shine for Norwich, his growing influence over the Scotland national team has become evident due to his performances for Steve Clarke’s side over the last six months.

In no uncertain terms, these two midfielders are showing their promise on the pitch at senior level rather than just impressing coaches on the Chelsea training grounds.