I hope so.. would love him back. I always thought there’d be some traction here as Parish did actually talk about a few months back in relation to trying to get Gallagher back to the club.

A permanent would be good if the fee was right.. he can’t be relied on for the whole season and he’s a proper sick note. I remember when he was with us first time round, i think it was someone in our coaching staff who said he has back issues which have to be managed to allow him to play. Great player though and would love to see what Pat can do with him. With a World Cup coming up that’s got to be in RLCs thoughts.. look what we did for Connor.

To play where though? Eze is our starting #10. Doucoure is basically nailed on. Therefore it leaves Macca, Hughes, Schlupp, Luka and Jairo battling it out for one other spot. Would we really add RLC into the mix too...when striker is in so much more need of attention?

Really feel we need another industrious box to box midfielder with an extra touch of quality.

We have a lot of midfielders who add 'depth' to the squad, who can offer a decent contribution when called upon. But we need a bona-fide 'starter', who is without question a tier above in terms of quality. And ideally left-footed.

Basically a Jimmy Mac or Gallagher replacement.

I appreciate these players are expensive and hard to find, but unless we get one, we are slightly inferior to last season's squad, unless the younger players are better versions of themselves this year.

Really feel we need another industrious box to box midfielder with an extra touch of quality.

We have a lot of midfielders who add 'depth' to the squad, who can offer a decent contribution when called upon. But we need a bona-fide 'starter', who is without question a tier above in terms of quality. And ideally left-footed.

Basically a Jimmy Mac or Gallagher replacement.

I appreciate these players are expensive and hard to find, but unless we get one, we are slightly inferior to last season's squad, unless the younger players are better versions of themselves this year.

just got off the phone to my old man who works as a referee assessor for the FA. Today he was at Chelseas training ground in Cobham assessing the ref in a Chelsea U23s game.

He was sitting in the small stand they have at the main pitch there and a light skinned black lad (my old man said probably late teens/early 20s) sitting a few rows I front.

As the players were warming up one of the them came over and said to this lad 'Are you going to Palace then'... This lad said Yes.. He was then asked when does he go and he replied 'tomorrow'..

Now my Dad is useless with names but from the description I'm thinking it could possibly be Colwill??.. I guess we will see!!

I don't really understand RLC on loan. He's supposed to be on £150k+ per week and Chelsea always get a loan fee.

Suppose you pay £3m loan fee and cover his wages, that's almost £11m for the season.

Take Gibbs-White as a hypothetical. You sign him for £30m and he's on £70k per week wages for 5 years. On the books, that costs the club £9.5m for the year.

Yes that is £9.5m per year for 5 years but at least you own the player and can sell him on. Loaning such an expensive player, especially one with his injury history, doesn't seem to fit with our model.

At least with Gallagher, his wages and loan fee would have been probably half of RLC.

Unless Chelsea are going to heavily subsidise his wages or put in clauses around injuries, neither of which I can really see happening, it just doesn't make sense to me.

At the weekend I was in conversation with a gentleman involved in the game and he was fulsome in praise for Sheff Utd's Sander Berger.

His comments included mention of Berge's ability to drive with the ball, his running power and the fact that he can dictate the game and break the line with passes.