By sticking Conor Gallagher in the 'bomb squad', Chelsea have utterly humiliated a player who has been with them since age eight. It's nasty, grubby and utterly classless, writes IAN HERBERT

By sticking Conor Gallagher in the 'bomb squad', Chelsea have utterly humiliated a player who has been with them since age eight. It's nasty, grubby and utterly classless, writes IAN HERBERT Conor Gallagher's £33.7million transfer to Atletico Madrid has stalled The Chelsea midfielder has returned to London to train with the U21s team Get breaking Premier League news straight to your phone on Mail Sport's new WhatsApp channel By Ian Herbert Published: 17:30 EDT, 13 August 2024 | Updated: 17:57 EDT, 13 August 2024 e-mail 4 View comments Conor Gallagher was sitting in a Madrid hotel room on Tuesday morning, waiting for a flight back to London to train with Chelsea ’s ‘bomb squad’ — their Under 21s and discards — three days out from the start of the season.

It’s not how he imagined it would be when the club’s fans unfurled a banner of him at the end of last season, in recognition of his contribution as stand-in captain and relentless ball- winner. Nor when he lifted the Premier League Under 21s trophy in 2018, a year before he was named academy player of the year. He’s been with the club since he was eight years old.

Chelsea are a different kind of club now. A club, under the ownership of Clearlake Capital, who have engaged in two years of maniacal spending: £1.5billion splashed, and they still want two more in this summer.

A club for which ‘future potential’ is, for reasons known only to their car-crash owners, deemed more important than finding competent p.