View: Reported 20y/o West Brom target has potential to be fantastic PL addition next term
West Brom have made great use of the loan market in their push for promotion this season.
Grady Diangana has been a revelation for the Baggies, while Matheus Pereira, Filip Krovinovic, and Callum Robinson have also proven to be worthwhile additions to Slaven Bilic’s squad in recent months.
And it looks as if Albion could already be hoping to wrap up another loan deal next term, with The Athletic suggesting that Conor Gallagher is attracting attention from the Baggies chiefs.
It is understood that West Brom are “big admirers” of the 20-year-old, who spent this season on loan at Charlton Athletic and then Swansea City, and hope to lure him and parent club Chelsea into a deal with the offer of top flight first team football next season.
But what kind of player would the Baggies be getting?
Gallagher is a lively character, there’s no doubt about it.
The midfielder has averaged a dribble success rate that is 7.1% higher than Krovinovic’s this term, as well as a shot accuracy rate that is superior by 9.4%, as per Wyscout.
There are other areas where he falls short compared to the Albion loanee, such as his pass completion rate – which is 6.5% worse – but for the most part he looks like a very exciting prospect, especially bearing in mind that he is only 20.
Gallagher registered two assists in Swansea’s pulsating 4-4 draw with Hull City back in February, and his first was a fine example of just dangerous he can be.
As pictured above, he has this great habit of making late runs from deep to join the attack.
It makes him incredibly hard to pick up for a backtracking defence, and is almost reminiscent of Chelsea manager Frank Lampard in his timing and execution.
In this instance, it allows Gallagher to ghost into an advanced position pretty much unnoticed.
At this point, you might forgive a young player for hurrying a shot off or firing a pass hopefully into the area.
Instead, Gallagher sells the nearest defender an exquisite dummy, dropping his shoulder to wrong foot him and driving towards the byline.
Even at this stage, you would understand if he struggled to make anything of his advanced position.
The playmaker is still outnumbered and facing a screen of Hull shirts between himself and the goal, or indeed, his teammates.
But Gallagher shows wonderful presence of mind and composure, just waiting long enough for the man at the front post to get sucked in and commit himself before sliding a pass across the face of goal.
Beautifully weighted, it leaves the final defender and the goalkeeper stranded, and gives Wayne Routledge one of the easiest tap-ins of his career.
On the basis of moments like this, there is clearly an impressive creative talent in there, and given regular Premier League minutes and some nurturing, who knows how far Gallagher could progress – even over the course of a single season.
If a move is genuinely on the cards, we would be all for it.
In other West Brom news, EFL deliver official update on proposed West Brom restart, outline Ch’ship voting intention.
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