Conor Gallagher on the market, which Prem teams are interested?

We thought Conor Gallagher was the perfect cultural and tactical fit for Atlético Madrid, but perhaps he was just a pawn in their scheme to get João Félix off their books. Gallagher made solid contributions to Atléti last season, starting 19 La Liga games and appearing in 50 total across all competitions, but he appears to be up for sale this summer.

These are the best sources in the world, but Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle are both reportedly looking into signing Gallagher. He’d likely cost about the same as Atléti paid for him, around £40m.

This summer, Atléti have made purchases in both of the positions that Gallagher spent time at last season. Álex Baena is likely to slot into the left winger spot that Gallagher played some solid minutes at, while Johnny Cardoso is a more like-for-like Gallagher replacement in the center of the pitch.

I didn’t love Johnny at Betis and was surprised to see Atléti move for him. He had similar defensive output to Gallagher, but was a less dynamic player.

Gallagher’s output in Spain last season wasn’t terribly different than his previous season at Chelsea. He had less ball-winning volume and pressing, but more dribble and carry OBV, all of which are totally explained by the difference in roles and systems he played in. He was the same guy Atléti thought they were buying, and there’s no reason to think he underperformed expectations or has experienced any kind of drop-off.

So if you’re a Premier League team who liked Gallagher last summer, you should still like him now. We know that Spurs are in that boat, but Chelsea wanted Felix and didn’t want to sell Gallagher to an English club. They might still get the hard-working CM they wanted, just a year late.

More transfer rumours

• Thanks to the reader who pointed out an error in yesterday’s newsletter. I misread a tweet by Fabrizio Romano — Flamengo fullback Wesley is heading to AS Roma, not AC Milan. I like him a lot and think it’s a good signing. I’m still liking Milan’s business this summer.

• Speaking of Milan’s business, they’ve upped their bid for Ardon Jashiri to €35m. Perhaps they’re getting fleeced because Brugge knows they have the money, but getting Jashiri and Luka Modric for half the price of Tijjani Reinders is still good business.

• Arsenal have completed the signing of defender Cristhian Mosquera, and it’s interesting that they seem to be taking a much different approach to finding value in young defenders than Man City. All of the guys City signed last winter were top 10% in their league for aerial duals%, with solid volume as well. Mosquera has notably poor aerial numbers, despite being tall, athletic, and signing for the set piece kings. Perhaps Arsenal think they’ve found an undervalued player they can fix who didn’t pass other teams’ filters.

• The Gunners have also completed the Viktor Gyökeres deal, and he’s on his way for a medical. He’s taking Thierry Henry’s No. 14. No pressure!

• Alexander Isak to Liverpool is the story that continues to extremely not go away. The Daily Mail is generally not the best source, but there are some great individual reporters there, and Craig Hope is pretty reliable on Newcastle news. There’s also Fab saying Liverpool is Isak’s priority.

• I can’t imagine this is possible unless Darwin Núñez softens his stance on wanting to stay in Europe. After a potential Napoli deal fell through, it seems likely that his only exit that meets Liverpool’s asking price will come from Saudi Arabia. Al Hilal are expected to bid.

• Apparently anticipating that all of this is going to happen and they’re going to receive a bid for Isak that they deem satisfactory, Newcastle are now selling Benjamin Šeško on Tyneside move.

• In other not very nice Newcastle news, James Trafford has snubbed them to re-sign for Manchester City. He’s an elite shot stopper, but certainly no Ederson with his feet.

• Fulham are interested in Raheem Sterling, though any move this summer is going to be down to Sterling’s willingness to take a significant pay cut. Chelsea would certainly subsidize some of his wages to get him out the door, but I can’t imagine Fulham want to pay more than 1/3 of what he currently makes.

And one last thing: We have a huge Premier League season preview coming out the week of Monday, August 4. It has detailed previews of all 20 teams, with contributions from Ted and I, plus a slew of other brilliant people. We wanted to be able to pay them fairly, so it’s £10, and you can get it here. Click the far right option and make sure the button at the bottom says £10. This sub will get you access to the whole thing: All 30,000+ words, with stats and data viz you won’t get anywhere else.

—KM

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