Steve Parish confirms Crystal Palace want to re-sign Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher
Posted by  badge Boss on May 11, 2022 - 10:22PM
Conor Gallagher has been voted Crystal Palace Player of the Season (Photo: Getty)

chairman Steve Parish has confirmed that the club want to re-sign midfielder Conor Gallagher in the summer.

loanee Gallagher has had an outstanding season at Selhurst Park, helping the Eagles to reach the semi-finals and push for a top 10 finish in the Premier League.

His performances in red and blue have also earned him a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s England team, but his future remains unclear.

While he is expected to return to Stamford Bridge and play a part in ’s side next season, Chelsea’s poor history with integrating academy players into the first-team has led some to believe that the 22-year-old is better off spending another year, or more, away from the Blues.

Speaking at the Crystal Palace end of season award show on Tuesday night, Parish admitted he was very open to signing Gallagher again, saying: ‘We would love to have him back. I’m not going to pretend that’s not the case.

‘We’ve enjoyed every minute of having him here this year. He’s been a fantastic asset to the club as a player and as a person as well.

Steve Parish saved Palace from liquidation in 2010 and has been in charge ever since (Photo: Getty)

‘Conor’s future and that decision lies not with us but with him and Chelsea. They’re the people that have to decide.

‘Once they decide what their choice is, they know where we are and what we want. If everybody thinks it’s the right thing for him to come back then we would love it.

‘We’ve got to either replace him or see if we can get him back. If it doesn’t work out, we wish him all the best as well.’

Gallagher was voted Palace’s Player of the Season, and at the awards show he thanked the fans for their incredible backing throughout the campaign.

‘The support I get from them every game and even here today it’s just amazing,’ he said.

‘It’s a great feeling for me and they’ve made me feel so welcome, so I thank them for that.’

Palace have had an impressive first season under Patrick Vieira, in part because of their fantastic recruitment which saw them sign outstanding young stars such as Gallagher, Marc Guehi and Michal Olise.

Parish added that their plan for the summer was to add a few more players in key areas but more importantly hold onto the great talent they possess, with Olise, Tyrick Mitchell, and long-time talisman Wilfred Zaha linked with big money moves away from South London.

‘We’ve got one or two other situations that are well-documented so keeping what we’ve got here is an important thing.

‘Then we’ve got one or two ideas of where we think we can add to make a difference, give ourselves something different, get even better at keeping the ball and be a bit more damaging when we’ve got it.

‘There’s no limit to our ambition at the football club. We’ll obviously look to bring some of the youngsters through that we’ve got who are very good and we start every year dreaming of being Leicester.’

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