I thought he played with much the same energy as Gallaher and immediately thought he could be a replacement. Doesn't possess, yet at least, the same degree of ball control or eye for a swift pass, but that could be coached into him. He is certainly a box to box midfielder.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

While we will almost certainly need to find a replacement for Gallagher, we also need to be mindful that Jimmy Mac will be 35 next season.

Gallagher has shown us what a difference a high energy midfield player can make. The added bonus with him is his passing and goal scoring. Not too many around with all of those attributes.

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Various media reports claiming that Gallagher is concerned that the wont get a fair chance back at Chelsea. Whilst this sounds good news to us I suspect it is his agent trying to leverage Chelsea so that he does.

Anyway I am not reading too much into it for now, let's just enjoy him while we can.

Edited by Badger11 (18 Nov 2021 9.26am)

One more point

For sure.

But in Eze and Olise we have two prime number 10s and at some stage our approach will be slightly different. Both Eze and Olise are more than capable of aggressive pressing - think City and Liverpool here - all their class forwards press very aggressively.

Yes we we will be down on tackling and aggression but the ball retention will be higher. Gallagher is class but his distribution is okay only - one area where he still lacks in comparison with Rice say.

Do we need to replace Gallagher? Personally think the bigger issue is Macca and Kouyate/Luca. There we will need a high energy replacement with a tackle count and decent distribution. Normann is a good call. The other I'd look at is Gilmour.

Gilmour is proper class as well. Might Chelsea sell him? Think the odds are better than Gallagher probs and he has exactly the right sort of profile of player that PV could mould to his system. Normann likely cheaper. Hughes could yet fit in there too. He hasn't played but Gallagher and Macca have kept him out by being excellent so no real reason to think that he has failed the test already. Was class previously.

Anguissa would also be great but would more likely fit further back as a proper CDM.

We won't get a one player replacement - if we do it'll be like when Leicester plucked Kante out of nowhere.

It'll have to be two - one to play the more advanced Gallagher role (maybe Eze could do this) and another to be the one who sits in the holding role.

McArthur has been awesome, but that's two injuries this year now and we have to plan for that to continue. We can rotate that McArthur role, but the current Luka/Kouyate/Jairo role needs an upgrade with someone else who is just as high energy.

26th January 2010 - Enter Administration
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We are being linked with Joe Aribo of Rangers.

I thought he looked a decent prospect at Charlton, although he was poor in a play off final they played in against Sunderland.

Even so, I think he was worth a punt at the fee of £300k at the time.

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