Chelsea must regret selling “priceless” star for £34m

A hot topic in the Chelsea fan base this week has been the nature of Enzo Maresca’s tactics, with many complaints arising about his slow and methodical style of play.

This comes after a drastic change from Mauricio Pochettino’s style of play last campaign, which was much more fast-paced and end-to-end.

However, since the Italian took over just eight months ago, Chelsea’s underlying numbers have improved from last season.

The Blues are taking more shots on average per game, but conceding fewer shots on average per match, also generating a higher xG and conceding a lower xG.

Despite the improvement in their underlying numbers, Chelsea’s ability to close out games has been an issue this season, dropping points to the likes of Fulham, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace in their recent poor run of form after taking the lead.

It’s in these games that a John Obi-Mikel-type player would have come in useful, helping to close the game and protect the result.

John Obi Mikel’s Chelsea career in numbers

John Obi Mikel joined Chelsea in 2006 for a fee of around £16mpaying Manchester United £12m to hijack their deal for Mikel, after they had already agreed a £4m fee for the Nigerian midfielder from Norwegian club, Lyn.

The defensive midfielder was a José Mourinho signing, and quickly became known for his role in the Chelsea squad as a closer, coming into games to sure things up defensively, allowing the Blues to protect leads and ensure they didn’t drop points.

Mikel made 372 appearances for the Bluesscoring six goals, providing 12 assists and featured for a grand total of 25,363 minutes in Chelsea blue.

This “closer” profile is something the Chelsea squad is currently missing, and they may have already sold their best-suited asset to this role in the 2024/25 summer transfer window.

Chelsea’s “priceless” star could have been Maresca’s Mikel

The west Londoners have made many a blunder in the transfer market in years gone by, particularly when it comes to exits.

From Mo Salah to Kevin De Bruyne and most recently, Marc Guehi, they’ve paid the price for passing on players too soon.

Another player they may regret telling to leave is Conor Gallagher. He left in the 2024/25 summer transfer window, with the England midfielder joining Atlético Madrid for a fee of around £34m.

Since joining the Spanish outfit, the 25-year-old has made 36 appearancesscoring three goals, providing four assists and totalling 1,901 minutes of action.

This includes scoring the only goal in the Madrid derby on Wednesday evening. It was a huge goal in the context of the tie, taking the game all the way to penalties where Atlético just fell short, failing to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.

Gallagher scored with his only shot of the match, but also did a brilliant job defensively, doubling up on Brazilian star Rodrygo, winning three of his seven ground duelscompleting three interceptions and one tackle.

When comparing Gallagher’s underlying numbers from last season to this season, many of his on-ball metrics are actually down, but his off-ball contribution is still as high as ever, making tackles, blocks and interceptions, showing how he could have been the perfect bench option for Chelsea this season to help close out games in a similar fashion to Mikel.

Pochettino described Gallagher as “priceless” for the Blues last season, as the English midfielder made 50 appearances in all competitionsscoring seven goals and providing nine assists. He even donned the captain’s armband in the absence of Reece James and Ben Chilwell.

Many Chelsea fans were upset with the sale of Gallagher, and whilst they do have an extremely talented midfield group, his extra athleticism, work rate and passion for the badge would have been a very useful tool this campaign.