Chelsea ‘offer’ England star who ‘won’t play again’ at Euro 2024 in ‘incredible’ swap for Barcelona man

Chelsea have offered England midfielder Conor Gallagher in a player-plus-cash offer for Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo, according to reports.

The Blues have spent over £1billion since a Todd Boehly-led consortium took over the Stamford Bridge outfit in May 2022 but Chelsea fans are yet to see the returns on the pitch.

Chelsea have already been busy in the transfer market this summer with the signings of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Marc Guiu, Omari Kellyman and Tosin Adarabioyo.

But it seems the Blues, who brought in Enzo Maresca as their new manager at the end of the season after Mauricio Pochettino left by mutual consent, are far from done in the transfer market.

Ian Maatsen, Lewis Hall and Omari Hutchinson, Thiago Silva and Hakim Ziyech have all departed the Chelsea this summer and there have been rumours for a while that Gallagher could be sold to help the Premier League club meet the profit and sustainability rules.

And now reports in Spain that Chelsea have ‘raised their offer’ for Barcelona centre-back Araujo in what is described as an ‘incredible’ deal for the Uruguay international.

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Chelsea ‘continue to insist on signing’ Araujo with Barcelona president Laporta and Deco ‘not at all closed to the option of transferring’ the defender this summer for the right price.

The Catalan giants ‘have warned all his suitors that they will ask for between €90m and €100m’ for Araujo but Boehly ‘hopes to reach an agreement with Barça to considerably reduce this cost, and has had the idea of ​​including in the negotiations a star player who could be interesting for Hans-Dieter Flick, and is dispensable for Maresca.’

After the signing of Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City , Gallagher is the man who Boehly is ready to swap after the England international ‘has run out of space at Chelsea, where he is one of the captains, and is looking to find a new challenge.’

The offer Chelsea have ‘prepared to convince Barça and allow Araújo to leave would be €45m, in addition to the permanent services of Gallagher.’

Gallagher came off the bench in England’s first two group matches at Euro 2024 against Serbia and Denmark before being handed a place in Gareth Southgate’s starting XI in their final group match versus Slovenia .

But the Chelsea midfielder was hauled off at half-time in their 0-0 draw against Slovenia before coming off the bench in the 106th minute to play the final 14 minutes of extra time in England’s dramatic last-16 victory over Slovakia.

Before the match against Slovakia, former Germany international Didi Hamann doubted Gallagher would be seen at the tournament again.

Hamann told RTE : “Gallagher isn’t or wasn’t a problem. He’s not the problem of that England team.

“It’s probably too late now. If you go after the lesser players, it doesn’t look good on the manager, and that’s what he’s done in the tournament.

“He’s taken Alexander-Arnold, he’s an easy target. Gallagher comes off at half-time. We probably don’t see Gallagher again for the rest of the tournament.”