Newcastle United keeping an eye on Conor Gallagher, Hakim Ziyech, Ruben Loftus-Cheek situations at Chelsea — report

Chelsea may have a fairly length injury list at the moment, but given our frantic incoming transfer activities, we’re also in danger of (re-)bloating the squad beyond reason if and when they do return to fitness, especially as we’re now down to just two competitions for the rest of the season.

Basically, we can’t just keep adding players. And unless we actually do sack a few of the current squad — entirely unlikely — we do have to go through the usual channels to lighten our numbers. One of the teams who may be listening in said channels are Newcastle United.

As per the Telegraph, the strong top-four contenders are “looking at the possibility” of bolstering their squad with one or more of Conor Gallagher, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Hakim Ziyech, though only the latter is currently being seen as “allowed to leave” this month. But presumably if we sign a new midfielder before the end of the transfer window, the other two might suddenly become available as well.

Newcastle, who were briefly linked with Jorginho at the start of the window, have been keeping an eye on Gallagher for the past 2-3 years, while Loftus-Cheek is into the final 18 months of his contract and may be facing a career-decision in the near future. And Ziyech of course has been on the proverbial chopping block for the past twelve months, if not more already. Newcastle are said to be looking for not short-term loans, but they are also sweating on an ankle injury to Bruno Guimarães, which may be prompting some urgency in the winter market.

If we are to greatly (and quickly) reshape the squad, we might have to take advantage of situations like this, while also consigning ourselves to not getting the greatest values in return.