Leeds United and West Brom to battle it out for Chelsea star in the making Conor Gallagher — reports

Conor Gallagher’s move to Crystal Palace is all but off after the Eagles decided to prioritize a move for Michy Batshuayi instead. While that’s not quite written in stone yet, Premier League rules stipulate that there can only be one player on loan from one Premier League club to another at any given time, and that means that Gallagher will need to find a new temporary home for the next season, despite apparently already undergoing a medical at Selhurst Park.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of demand for the England U21 midfielder, with clubs from Germany and England expressing their interest. According to the Daily Mail, the two clubs who are the furthest ahead in the race are the two automatically promoted sides from the Championship, Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion.

The interest from Leeds or West Brom isn’t new; they’ve both been linked with the 20-year-old since the nascent stages of the transfer window. The Baggies seem to have a slight advantage as they have apparently held talks with the player’s entourage already.

Both clubs lack depth in the midfield department, with Kalvin Phillips and Pablo Hernandez the only midfielders capable of genuinely challenging Gallagher at Leeds, while in West Brom’s case, Gallagher would have to compete with Jake Livermore and Romaine Sawyers. All those players, Gallagher included, were playing at the Championship level last season.

Either of those two clubs should be a good destination for Gallagher to develop, though he will need to sign his Chelsea contract extension first, currently set to expire in 2022, before he can head out for the season.