Ranking Chelsea academy departees by club regret as Gallagher nears Atletico

Looks like Conor Gallagher is on his way to Atletico Madrid having played more minutes than anyone for his boyhood club last season and captaining them for the majority of the campaign.

Doesn’t feel like Chelsea have thought it all the way through and it won’t be the first time. They’ve sold a whopping 15 academy graduates in the last three years in their desperate bid to make pure profit. Curse these Chelsea owners.

We haven’t included Ian Maatsen and Omari Hitchinson as we don’t yet know how much they’ll regret them leaving this summer, but have ranked the 13 others by how much the Blues are currently ruing their decision to send them packing.

13) Izzy Brown (Preston, free)
A twice-ruptured Achilles tendon forced him to retire in April at the age of 26. Poor lad.

12) Jake Clarke-Salter (QPR, free)
“He reminds me a bit of myself,” John Terry said after Clarke-Salter came on as a 74th-minute sub in the 4-0 win over Aston Villa in 2016. He made 33 appearances for a QPR side that narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship last term, not looking very much like John Terry.

11) Lewis Baker (Stoke, free)
The Stoke captain has enjoyed a more than serviceable career, enjoying fruitful loans at Vitesse Arnhem and Trabzonspur before putting down roots with the Potters. He played just 34 minutes of football for Chelsea.

10) Mason Mount (Manchester United, £55m)
A great call thus far, you’ve got to say. 20 appearances for United last season, one goal and one assist. Mount would likely have done better had he gone literally anywhere other than United, but there must have been be a hell of a lot of back slapping among the Chelsea chiefs over this particular decision.

9) Tammy Abraham (Roma, £34m)
He scored 15 Premier League goals for Chelsea in the 2019/20 season and no striker has scored more since, despite big Nico Jackson coming close last term. But 37 goals in 119 appearances for Roma isn’t a record that will have Blues fans wondering what might have been for long.

8) Lewis Hall (Newcastle, £28m after loan)
Letting him leave given Ben Chilwell’s injury history and Marc Cucurella being Marc Cucurella was mystifying, but after the Spaniard’s displays at the end of the season snowballed into Euro 2024, where he was one of the best in the tournament , we now have to face the uncomfortable reality that the Chelsea directors may not be entirely stupid.

7) Tino Livramento (Southampton, £5m)
Livramento left Chelsea in the summer of 2021, citing Reece James blocking his path to the first team as his primary reason. James wouldn’t have been much of a blocker given his injury issues but the Blues have sourced an excellent backup option in Malo Gusto. £5m is far too low a fee however.

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6) Billy Gilmour (Brighton, £7.5m)
A stunning Europa League display had us drooling with Gilmour at that time everything for Brighton that Moises Caicedo wasn’t for Chelsea , and although the Blues are likely now pretty happy with their midfield options, £7.5m is clearly a bargain for a player of Gilmour’s ability.

5) Andreas Christensen (Barcelona, free)
You would have thought Chelsea would have found a better centre-back than Andreas Christensen having bought four of them for close to £200m since he left the club, but it’s not entirely clear that they have.

4) Ruben Loftus-Cheek (AC Milan, £15m)
As was the case at Chelsea when he was playing and fit – two caveats that rarely coincided – Loftus-Cheek looked like a world-beater at times for Milan last season as he drove past players in midfield and managed six Serie A goals in his debut campaign. £15m is a tad low.

3) Callum Hudson-Odoi (Nottingham Forest, £3m)
A strange decision not to sell him to Bayern Munich for £50m and even stranger to then let him leave for pennies. Really found his feet at Forest in the second half of his debut season, with his value on the rise once again and Chelsea could really do with another left winger.

2) Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan, £25m)
Firstly, what a move it’s been for him. A key cog in a massive European team that won the Serie A title in his second season and got to a Champions League semi-final in his third. Pure profit or not, Chelsea would have saved a huge chunk of change by keeping him.

1) Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace, £18m)
£18m? FFS. He’s been linked with £60m moves to near enough every other top Premier League team since and was the best player in a team that made it to the European Championship final . Chelsea didn’t even give him a chance.