Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira this week claims he is disappointed that Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher is not allowed to play in the FA Cup semi-final this Sunday.
Chelsea rejected Palace’s request to play Gallagher against them this weekend, because he is a Chelsea loanee. Now Vieira might be apparently baffled by this but the reality is, would he allow it if the shoe was on the other foot? I can 100% tell you now, no, he would not.
Gallagher is a Chelsea player, so why on earth would we allow him to play against us and risk him potentially having a big hand in knocking us out of the FA Cup? It’s just not realistic and unfortunately Patrick, that’s how loan players work. They are not YOUR player, they are ON LOAN, it really is as simple as that.
Of course, it would be a nice opportunity for Gallagher to play in the semi-finals of the FA Cup. But don’t you worry about that Patrick, Conor will be getting PLENTY of opportunities to play in the FA Cup, Champions League, and all the other top competitions that he will be competing for at Chelsea in the coming seasons, so he will absolutely get his moments.
Gallagher is a huge part of Chelsea’s future and he has proven that this season. I am thankful to Vieira and Palace for playing him and helping nuruture a great player. But unfortunately that is literally how the cookie crumbles in this business.
He’s a Chelsea player first and foremost and that simply must come first. There’s no way I’d be letting him play against us, he has the ability to really damage us and at the end of the day, we are trying to win a trophy here!
