The club wanted extra strength and muscle in the centre of the pitch, to help them better control matches, and Gallagher can deliver those characteristics.
The English player reached the final of Euro 2024 this past summer with his national team, ultimately losing that final 2-1 against Spain. In that tournament, he participated in five matches for a total of 118 minutes. He has now played 18 times for the English national team, including his experience in major tournaments.
Gallagher is 24 years of age and arrives from Chelsea, the club whose academy he was trained in. He played for The Blues last season, but also had several loan spells during his career, spending time at Charlton, Swansea, West Brom and Crystal Palace, eventually earning a place in Chelsea’s first-team plans.
His best season was surely the 2023/24 campaign, when he participated in 37 league matches, starting all of them. He only missed one game and that was due to a suspension. That record meant he was one of the top 20 players in the Premier League last season for minutes played, with 3,135. He was only around 200 minutes behind Jordan Pickford, the player who ended up with the most minutes in the English top division last season.
During that 2023/24 campaign, he scored five goals and contributed seven assists, making clear that he was one of the key players for the London club. In fact, he even wore the captain’s armband in 23 of the 37 matches he played. In total, he represented Chelsea 95 times, scoring 10 goals and providing 10 assists.
Able to arrive in the opposition penalty area and provide balance in the centre of the pitch thanks to his physicality, he is a box-to-box midfielder in every sense. He is expected to help Atlético de Madrid become more solid at the back, while this should also help the forwards to have more freedom to generate chances and goals.
Atlético de Madrid get the midfielder Simeone wanted
Los Colchoneros have acquired a world-class player, one who’ll help the team to grow and to compete for titles. He isn’t the only player to have arrived this summer, as the capital city outfit have also brought in Julian Alvarez, Alexander Sørloth and Robin Le Normand, keen to develop a new winning spine.
With Gallagher’s arrival, Diego Simeone is getting a player he wanted for his midfield. With the English footballer boasting a pass accuracy rate of 91.5 percent and a rate of six balls recovered per game, he should fit seamlessly into the midfield and establish a winning connection with the likes of Koke, Pablo Barrios and Rodrigo De Paul. This could be key for Los Rojiblancos and Simeone can smile as now he has even more resources at his disposal.