Conor Gallagher was picked to start for England in midfield against Brazil this week, and nobody was that surprised. We’ve all adjusted to the fact that he’s now a certain starter for Chelsea, and therefore a natural choice for England in a midfield where his competition includes fading forces like Jordan Henderson.
But we shouldn’t forgot how major a step forward this is just because we’ve got used to seeing him every week at Chelsea. Two years ago he was at Crystal Palace, valued at €22m by TransferMarkt and looked far from this sort of role. Now he’s valued at €48m and rising.
Gallagher himself believes that being forced to step up into a leadership role in a struggling Chelsea team has helped his England chances, and that’s without doubt true. If Chelsea hadn’t stripped back their midfield so severely over the last two seasons he would likely be playing more often from the bench, and Gareth Southgate would have a much harder time justifying picking him.
Instead he’s had a good a season as any England midfielder not named Judge Bellingham or Declan Rice, and has a great chance of being Southgate’s starter in Germany this summer. We will find out a lot more tomorrow night when the Three Lions play their final pre Euro 2024 warmup, against Belgium at Wembley.