TA:Gallagher's move to Tottenham is going to really, really hurt Chelsea's fan

The discussion among Chelsea fans is already underway: is Conor Gallagher a traitor or will he always be remembered fondly as one of the faithful?

Gallagher choosing to join Tottenham Hotspur from Atletico Madrid this week for €40million (£34.7m; $46.4m) is a plot twist worthy of a certain high-profile reality TV show.

This is a Chelsea academy graduate who grew up 10 minutes’ drive from their training ground as a fan of the west London club in a family full of them. He went on to play 95 times for their senior side, almost a third of them while wearing the captain’s armband. Yet he has now signed for the team many Chelsea supporters consistently make it very clear they hate more than any other.

That is a pretty risky strategy if you are worried about maintaining popularity back at your boyhood club.

And Gallagher has done little to cushion the blow since putting pen to paper.

No player is going to express contrition to fans of a former club while doing a first interview after joining one of their fiercest rivals. You almost know the quotes before you see them when transfers are announced these days, the script is so predictable. But read the following through the prism of many of those who adored him in his years at Stamford Bridge and the words sting.

“I’m so happy and excited to be here, taking the next step in my career at an amazing club,” Gallagher says in a video on Tottenham’s official website, while wearing his new team’s shirt. “I wanted to be a Spurs player, and thankfully the club felt the same. It was very easy. I know how great the fans are, I’m really happy to be a part of it here and want to create special moments and memories together.”

Gallagher is not the first Chelsea player to go on to play for Tottenham. There have been in excess of 20 of them overall, including the legendary striker Jimmy Greaves. The England midfielder’s new Spurs team-mate Dominic Solanke is the most recent to leave their part of west London and end up in the blue-and-white corner of the city’s north, albeit in his case via spells at Liverpool and Bournemouth spanning seven years.

Chelsea’s past two title-winning managers — Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte — plus the rather less impactful Andre Villas-Boas, have also taken jobs there after moving on from the Stamford Bridge hotseat.

Mourinho’s warm reception when returning with current employers Benfica for a Champions League game in October shows that Chelsea followers are prepared to forgive and forget. But he had been booed and jeered by sections of the home crowd when he was in the Spurs dugout (and the Manchester United one before that, too).

If Chelsea’s most successful manager, with seven major trophies at the club to his name, gets such treatment, what lies in store for Gallagher?

Another former Chelsea midfielder, Gus Poyet, who went on to spend three years at Tottenham from 2001, offers a potential clue. His standing with the Stamford Bridge masses never recovered. Kissing the badge on his shirt during a 5-1 Spurs win against Chelsea in January 2002 did not help matters.

You just have to see how Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, who combined for the winning goal in Chelsea’s Champions League final win over Manchester City in 2021, are treated every time they play against them these days for Manchester United and Arsenal respectively to realise how they have gone from revered to rebuked because they are now with big domestic rivals.

Gallagher has been blessed by the fixture schedule in that, barring the clubs being drawn to play each other in the Champions League knockout stage, his first game for Tottenham against his boyhood club is four months away (May 17, at Stamford Bridge — and even then it would need to be moved if Liam Rosenior and company are in the previous day’s FA Cup final), which gives those of a Chelsea persuasion time to cool off.

When Gallagher last played in this fixture, as captain, at home to Spurs in May 2024 (a 2-0 win, he got the assist on the opening goal), a large banner of him was unfurled at the stadium’s Shed End with the words ‘Chelsea since birth’ on it. That homage clearly no longer applies now he is going to be representing their most-loathed rivals. Hopefully someone kept the receipt for the flag.

Gallagher cannot plead ignorance. Everyone connected with Chelsea knows which team they dislike the most. Even though Chelsea have dominated Tottenham in terms of trophies won and in head-to-head matches for three decades now, the venom directed their way is as strong as ever.

But despite all this, not every Chelsea fan outside his family will regard this transfer as treachery.

There is still a lot of sympathy towards Gallagher for the manner of his departure to Atletico in summer 2024. The now 25-year-old wanted to stay with Chelsea when there were 12 months left on his contract, but talks over an extension did not go well.

Gallagher turned down two offers from the club in June and July that year.

Significantly, the lifespan of this proposed new deal was just two years, plus an option for a further 12 months. Contrast that with all those new signings at Chelsea getting six- to eight-year deals during the Todd Boehly-Clearlake era, which began in May 2022. His fellow academy graduate Reece James, albeit more advanced in his career at the time it happened, was also given a big payrise and six-year deal in September 2022.

So the far-shorter length of Chelsea’s offer was hardly sending Gallagher the message that he was a serious part of their long-term plans.

As explained at the time, Gallagher came away from a meeting with the club believing there would be consequences for his first-team role if he did not sign the contract or agree to join Atletico.

Even when he acquiesced to the latter, he ended up in the farcical position of flying to Spain (to sign for Atletico) and then back again as Chelsea pulled out of a seperate €40million move for Atletico’s striker Samu Aghehowa.

Gallagher’s transfer only went ahead after Chelsea bought previous loanee Joao Felix from the La Liga club first, for £44.5million. Notably, the Portugal international was given a six-year contract including an option for another 12 months. In the following winter window, however, he was loaned to Milan for the remainder of last season and then in the summer he moved to Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia for an initial €30m (potentially rising to €50m with add-ons).

Those in Gallagher’s corner will argue that, under those circumstances, is it any wonder the player is putting himself ahead of any sense of loyalty to Chelsea’s long-standing rivalry with another London club? After all, where did that stance get him before? There’s a World Cup in five months, and he needs a strong end to the season to get back in head coach Thomas Tuchel’s England plans after missing his past three squads.

The counter to that is there was interest from other clubs, such as Aston Villa, he could have joined instead. But no agreement was reached with Villa because of their desire to maintain tight financial discipline.

Regardless of what side of the fence Chelsea fans sit on over this, Gallagher’s presence at Spurs will surely add even more spice to the fixture for as long as he is their player.