“It was definitely worth the wait,” says Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher, with the sun shining on their training ground in the leafy suburbs of the Spanish capital.
The Athletic has just asked Gallagher how he feels after scoring his first goal for his new club in Sunday’s 3-0 La Liga win against visitors Valencia at the Estadio Metropolitano.
“The wait” was a reference to a tough few weeks for Gallagher in August, when his €42million (£35.5m/$47m) move from Chelsea hung in the balance. There was a real possibility the 24-year-old England international could find himself excluded from any first-team football for the 2023-24 season.
When it’s put to Gallagher that he has taken a step up in his career and arrived at a place where he is truly appreciated, he agrees.
“I’ve felt very wanted and appreciated, which is important for any footballer,” he says.
“Chelsea are a huge football club, one of the biggest in the world, along with Atletico. But I have taken that exciting step of playing Champions League football and challenging for trophies. It just builds me with even more confidence and happiness to play my best football.”
That wait to become an Atletico player feels like a long time ago now for Gallagher, who speaks glowingly about his start to life in Spain.
“I’m really happy to be here and I’m settling in well,” he says. “I’ve loved my first few weeks. I knew Atletico was always a massive club, a top club in La Liga and doing well in the Champions League. So I was excited to join.
“It was really good to win against Valencia and score my first goal. Hopefully, we can build on this and I can gain more confidence.”
Perfect play from @atletienglish 🔝#LALIGAHighlights pic.twitter.com/oLkLC7rQXh
— LALIGA English (@LaLigaEN) September 17, 2024
Gallagher was earmarked early this summer as one of Atletico’s top midfield targets, with his box-to-box style fitting the profile coach Diego Simeone wanted to add to his team. Chelsea offered him a stark choice — sign a two-year contract extension, agree to join Atletico or stay but be excluded from the first-team squad.
He arrived in Madrid on August 8 and Atletico even posted images of him training with some of his new team-mates — but the agreement with Chelsea required 20-year-old striker Samu Omorodion to move the other way. When Omorodion’s transfer fell through, Gallagher returned to London, and Atletico explored other options, including Valencia’s Javi Guerra and Mikel Merino, who at that point had yet to join Arsenal from Real Sociedad.
During the hold-up, Valencia’s sporting director Miguel Angel Corona made the explosive claim that Atletico had tried to “get out” of a deal to sign Gallagher — a version of events disputed by both the Madrid club and Chelsea.
It was close to a fortnight before the deal was revived by Chelsea agreeing to buy Joao Felix from Atletico for €60million. It can’t have been an easy time for Gallagher — was his final feeling the wrench of leaving the club who had formed him after 15 years or relief that his time in limbo was over?
“It was just (being) full of excitement to be joining Atletico,” Gallagher says. “When I look back at my memories at Chelsea, I’m very proud and honoured to play for the club. It was time to move on and Atletico is the perfect club to make the next chapter in my career. I feel very lucky and fortunate to be in this position.”
During that period of uncertainty, Gallagher could not train with Chelsea’s first team, so had to work individually at their Cobham base. This was not exactly ideal preparation for Simeone’s physical and intensive pre-season training, which Gallagher had been warned about by England team-mate Kieran Trippier, a 2020-21 La Liga title winner at Atletico.
“Kieran said that training was very intense, very hard,” Gallagher says. “But he knows me well from England and said it’s perfect for me, for how I am as a player and what I am like at training.
“It was tough at the start, the weather was very hot, but I’m quite a fit player, I’m able to adapt to the conditions and the intensity that the manager likes me to play at. That’s no problem and it’s only going to get better.”
Hours after being flown to Madrid by Atletico for the second time, Gallagher was unveiled alongside fellow new arrivals Julian Alvarez, Robin Le Normand and Alexander Sorloth at a spectacular presentation event at the Metropolitano.
Thirty-thousand Atletico fans cheered as Gallagher was escorted from the players’ tunnel by a convoy of Harley-Davidson riders, with Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome To The Jungle blaring out and fireworks sparking across the night sky.
Ganándose a la afición desde el minuto 1.
Hablando en español.
Gritando el ‘Aupa @Atleti’.A Conor Gallagher no le cabe la sonrisa en la cara 👀
🔗 https://t.co/G2mTBmUuHw pic.twitter.com/HwZTGdWmFk
— DAZN España (@DAZN_ES) August 21, 2024
“It was all a bit of a surprise,” Gallagher says with a smile. “I didn’t think it would be as good and as big as it was. It was very exciting, a very, very nice welcome.
“It was definitely different. In the Premier League, they don’t do welcomes like this. It was very special, and they did it for every new player — the women and the men. It made all of the new players feel at home straight away.”
During the ceremony, Atletico’s new No 4 was introduced over the loudspeaker as a “pitbull” who would bring “new lungs” to the team.
“I think that (the pitbull nickname) was something Atletico made up,” Gallagher says. “Some people in England call me a dog, because of how I play on the pitch. Sometimes I just run after every ball, like a dog does in the park. It kind of stuck. (Atletico) took it from there. I don’t mind. I take it as a compliment.”
The supporters have already warmed to Gallagher’s style of play. On his debut against Girona, he earned his first roars of appreciation for a sequence when he carried the ball towards the opposition box, lost it to Yangel Herrera, but then chased back and upended the Venezuelan midfielder.
“Atletico is perfect to showcase my abilities,” says Gallagher. “The fans and the manager and my team-mates appreciate hard work and passion on the football pitch — I can bring a lot of that.”
Sunday’s comprehensive 3-0 win against Valencia showcased another side to this Atletico team. Gallagher’s opening goal was a tidy finish set up by Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul’s perfectly timed and weighted assist after a passing move orchestrated by Antoine Griezmann.
Fans used to thinking of Simeone’s Atletico as a ‘dogs of war’ team might have been taken aback at the technical quality of the move, but not Gallagher. He says his first memory of Atletico is their 4-1 win against Chelsea in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, when striker Radamel Falcao scored a hat-trick.
“I’m not surprised,” Gallagher says. “Every top club has a lot of technical and talented footballers. The manager has his style of football. It’s brilliant, and I’m really excited to keep working with him and understand more how I can help the team.”
Simeone, a 108-cap Argentina midfielder himself back in the day, has been working closely with Gallagher, offering instructions and advice and helping him understand what his role in the team should be.
“We need a translator to help the communication, but soon I’ll be able to understand his Spanish,” says Gallagher, who has started language lessons.
“He understands my game well, what I’m best at, and what I’m not so good at. The last few games he has told me my strengths, and what I should be doing on the pitch, which has really helped me feel confident and comfortable in my role in my team.”
Against Valencia, his first full 90 minutes for Atletico, Gallagher began to the left of a narrow midfield three. He was urged to break forward into the penalty area, as he did when becoming the first Englishman ever to score for the club in La Liga.
It was reminiscent of Gallagher’s role on loan at Crystal Palace from Chelsea during the 2021-22 season, when he scored eight goals in 34 Premier League games under another former elite midfielder in Patrick Vieira.
“(Simeone) asks me to get in the box when I can,” says Gallagher. “And that’s what I try to do. I was lucky enough to get the good pass from Rodrigo and get my first goal. Hopefully, I can continue to do that, and get some more goals.”
Atletico begin their Champions League campaign tomorrow (Thursday) at home against German visitors RB Leipzig. Then there is the first ‘derbi’ of the season against Real Madrid at the Metropolitano on September 29. That could mean a first meeting in La Liga with England colleague Jude Bellingham.
“I’ve not seen Jude since I moved to Madrid, but we’ll have a good chat the next time I see him,” says Gallagher. “I’m really excited for (the derby). Jude is an incredible footballer and a top guy as well. Any time I play against him is going to be a difficult game.”
That game against the reigning Spanish and European champions will be a tough test for this new-look Atletico. They spent more than €200million this summer on Gallagher, ex-Manchester City striker Alvarez, Spain’s European Championship-winning centre-back Le Normand and Sorloth, the former Crystal Palace striker who scored 23 La Liga goals for Villarreal last season.
A window like that brings expectation and pressure for Atletico to win a trophy this season. But Gallagher’s reply of the “partido a partido” (“game by game”) mantra repeated so often by Simeone shows he is quickly settling in.
“Winning something is the aim,” he says. “The whole team is confident we can do this. The manager has said we need to take one game at a time. There are a lot of games and we need to stay focused. Every game matters so much. That is what we are focused on now — the next game.”
(Top photo: Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
