Back with a double shot of Chelsea FC Transfer Talk today, covering Conor Gallagher and Benjamin Sesko. Part one covered Michael Olise and Ivan Toney.
Gallagher, 24, has just one year left on his deal, and Chelsea will ship him out this summer if he doesn’t put pen to paper on a new deal. They don’t want to risk the homegrown Londoner bouncing as a free agent in 2025.
For today’s Chelsea News and Notes go here
Gallagher, currently away with England at Euro 2024, has been been linked with a summer exit for quite some time.
This despite the fact that Mauricio Pochettino often made sure he was one of the first names written on the team sheet (or so it seemed). Gallagher is expected to fetch about £50m on the open market, and all of that money counts as profit towards their aim of meeting financial stipulations.
Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa are both said to be interested, with the Villans understood to be in pole position right now. Shifting gears to Sesko, the RB Leipzig forward has a reported release clause of £55m, but with both Manchester United and Arsenal also keen, a bidding war could drive the price much higher.
Arsenal had been thought to be leading the the chase, and perhaps even getting close to the finish line, but that doesn’t actually seem to be the case right now.
Chelsea are still very much in it.
Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano says we’ll know the outcome before too long though.
“I expect Benjamin Sesko to make his decision very soon,” he told The United Stand.
Sesko, 21, scored 14 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances after moving from sibling club RB Salzburg last summer.
He’s currently part of the Slovenian national team squad at the 2024 Euro Championships in Germany. They’re in same group as England, so facing Three Lions could give him a good primer on what life would be like with Chelsea.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to Ravens Wire, part of the USA Today SMG’s NFL Wire Network and the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and the Washington Times. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.