Tottenham hope to tie up controversial Conor Gallagher transfer from Chelsea as quick as possible ahead of pre-season
TOTTENHAM hope to tie up a quick deal for Conor Gallagher this summer - and Chelsea’s financial pressures could make it happen.
England midfielder Gallagher, 24, has been a long-term target for Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou is out to strengthen his squad, which he hopes will be playing in the Champions League next term.
The Australian wants to get his business done as early as possible to get a full pre-season.
And he sees Gallagher as a great fit for his style.
The former Crystal Palace loanee will only have a year left on his Blues deal in June.
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And while there remains a chance he signs a new one at his boyhood club, the likelihood is he will be sold.
Chelsea need to flog players to raise funds before July 1 to comply with Profit and Sustainability Rules after massively overspending during the Todd Boehly era.
That boosts the chances of a Gallagher sale - which would be deemed as pure profit for the Blues given he is a homegrown player - early in the close season.
Postecoglou rapidly got his business underway last summer by bringing in Guglielmo Vicario from Empoli and James Maddison from Leicester in June.
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While Timo Werner - who hopes to have his loan made permanent in the summer for £15million after impressing - and Radu Dragusin were signed early in January.
Chelsea would be looking for at least £40m for Gallagher.
That is considering they sold Mason Mount for £55m to Manchester United with a year left on his deal last summer, and Maddison, who also had 12 months remaining on his Foxes deal, went for £40m.
But the West Londoners’ PSR requirements may mean they have to accept less - unless they can get a bidding war going amongst interested parties.
Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino has reiterated his desire to keep Gallagher, who has 12 caps for his country and hopes to go to the Euros.
When asked about whether he hoped to have his future sorted before this summer’s tournament, Gallagher said last month: “When it comes to it, I’ll be focusing on England and the task in hand.”
WHAT IS FFP?
SunSport's Martin Lipton breaks down what it is all about...
FFP - or Financial Fair Play - is a concept originally introduced by Uefa in 2009, officially to prevent clubs from spending money they could not afford.
Yet many critics have rounded on the system, accusing it of being a protective instrument, drafted by the so-called “legacy clubs” to prevent insurgent and wealthier clubs from buying their way onto the top table.
The Premier League introduced its own FFP regulations which came into effect for the 2013-14 season and which, while less stringent than Uefa regulations, they do impact on club spending.
Under the current Prem “Profitability and Sustainability” regulations, clubs who are constant members of the top flight for a three-year period are allowed total losses of £105m over those three campaigns.
But it is not as simple as totting up outlay and income.
The biggest outlay, of course, is transfer fees. The 20 Prem clubs spent a total of around £2.4bn in last summer’s transfer window.
Yet that does not mean they “spent” that money as far as the Prem rules are concerned.
Transfer fees are “amortised” over the length of the contract, so, for example, a £100m fee for a player who signs a five-year deal is amortised at a cost of £20m per season for each of those five campaigns.