Chelsea legend fumes over Conor Gallagher treatment and piles pressure on £100m star
John Obi Mikel has labelled Chelsea’s handling of Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah’s transfers as ‘bad business’.
The two Blues academy graduates were both put up for sale this summer and talkSPORT understands both stars have been banished from first team training.
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Chelsea are keen to offload Chalobah, whilst Gallagher was set to move to Atletico Madrid, with midfielder even flying over to Spain to complete the transfer.
However, Atletico have been left furious after the Blues pulled out of the deal after after Samu Omorodion’s move to Chelsea in the opposite direction collapsed.
He’s since flown home but is expected to train with the Under-21s.
A large number of Chelsea fans have fumed at their homegrown talents joining outcasts Romelu Lukaku and Armando Broja.
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And that includes former Blues star, Mikel.
“Of course, two young boys that bleed blue, exactly,” he said on his podcast, . “Through and through. At the club when they were little boys and now we have to sell them to make sure it balances the books.
“Then it comes down to the owners just spending way too much money and buying everybody that’s got a price tag on [them]. Just spending way too much money, buying way too many players we don’t need.
“Now, you have to sell, for me the best player last season apart from Cole Palmer, [which] was Conor Gallagher.
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“He was the only player you could see was putting in effort, running and putting in the performances that was needed to be at the club, you know what I mean.
“For me, I think he should still be at the club. Also Chalobah as well for me when he came back from his injury. He was the best centre-back we had. I don’t think we lost a game when he came back, or probably one or two or something like that.
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“But he was absolutely fantastic when he came back from injury and he played all the games.
“Poch trusted him and brought him into the team and he played all the games, he was absolutely fantastic. Now we have to sell those two players to balance the books.
“Two young players who bleed Chelsea, and now you have to sell them to balance the books.”
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And Mikel didn’t hold back when deciding where to pin the blame.
He continued: “I just think it’s bad business from the owners. Absolutely bad business from the owners.
“Now, we’ve lost two fantastic players! I think ‘is Chalobah going to improve the team?’ of course! Hell yeah! Is Conor Gallagher going to improve the team? For me, yes.
“When he played, towards the end of the season when he played with [Moises] Caicedo, the energy that he has, for me, we need that. We definitely need that.”
Chelsea have also sold academy product Ian Maatsen to Aston Villa for £37.5million, Omari Hutchinson to Ipswich for £18million and Michael Golding to Leicester for £5million.
However, the Blues still have a squad bursting at the seams.
Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Estevao Willian are amongst the new additions.
This is on top of the eye-watering amount of money already spent by Todd Boehly and co since their arrival.
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That includes Enzo Fernandez - and Mikel believes the new campaign is the time for the Argentinian to step up.
"He's a player that needs a big season," he said. "We've talked about him, we've made excuses for him, he's won the World Cup, he's fantastic with Argentina.
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"But I think he needs a big season this season. You can't be making excuses for him."
Chelsea started their Premier League season against reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday.
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