West Ham United willing to pay £40m to sign Chelsea star Conor Gallagher
West Ham United would be willing to pay up to £40m to sign Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher this month, according to Dan Kilpatrick.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Transfer Talk podcast (12 January), the Evening Standard journalist reports that both Tottenham and the Hammers are interested in the England international.
But while the Chelsea owners would be open to a sale this month, Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino would “hate it” which makes the situation one to watch for the remainder of the window.
“It will be interesting to see what happens with Gallagher this month,” he said.
“Spurs and possibly West Ham would pay £30m or £40m for him. I’m sure the Chelsea owners would like that, but I think Pochettino would hate that, so keep an eye on that one.”
Odd
That would be an odd transfer and one that would be incredibly surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to the Premier League this season.
Chelsea have no doubt struggled, but Gallagher has been a key player under Pochettino and has even been wearing the captain’s armband in recent months in the absence of Reece James.
So he’s clearly held in high regard there, and is a lifelong Chelsea fan too. So joining Spurs or West Ham seems highly unlikely, until you remember the fact they have spent over £1bn in the last two years and financially need help when it comes to FFP.
A sale of Gallagher would help them massively as he is an academy graduate, meaning all the money would be seen as a profit on their books, but West Ham doesn’t seem like a logical choice.
Moyes loves Tomas Soucek and has only recently signed James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez in that position, so fitting him in would be a headache that isn’t needed right now.
In other West Ham news, Stan Collymore tips Hammers to sign Arsenal star in summer twist.