I can't see us prioritising him now with Doucoure and Flynn Downes apparently inbound (Downes being more or less the Gallagher equivalent).

While I get that he's a Chelsea fan and wants to pursue his dream, I can't help but think there's a pretty good chance that one day soon, Connor's going to regret not pushing hard for a permanent move to Palace at the end of last season. And if he'd told Chelsea that's what he wanted, my guess is that something might have been worked out.

Maybe I'm wrong but I can't see him becoming the first choice at Chelsea and if he's loaned out again, I doubt he'll rip trees somewhere like Everton the way he did with us. He had an almost perfect situation in front of him here...a coach who loved him, England call-ups, supporters behind him, etc. Dreams or not, sometimes a bird in hand is what matters.

Anyway, time will tell but I'd honestly be surprised if we're still after him. My sense is that things may have moved on.

Personally I think he'd regret not trying to crack his boyhood club.

He's still young, if he doesn't break in this year and gets fed up there will still be plenty of suiters for him. Its not now or never

It's quite rare that a player departs on such good mutual terms. Typically either the player is upset at being pushed out or the club don't want him to.

In this case I think the overwhelming majority of us want him to succeed in his career and will cheer him on his return, which shows what a tremendous asset to the club he was last season.

Chelsea are just giving GC lip service to keep him on side and his chances will be even more limited with the signing of yet another midfielder from Napoli.

He needs regular football which is why he excelled with us and broke into the England team. Its a repeat of the Loftus - Cheek loan.