Gallagher has been an instant success at Palace and one of the breakthrough players of the Premier League season. Loftus-Cheek also thrived at Selhurst Park when he joined in 2017, a season that propelled him into England’s 2018 World Cup squad, although since then injuries and inconsistency, as well as an indifferent loan spell at Fulham, have stalled his development. “I don’t want to ruin his mood,” Tuchel said, “but I think the last thing Ruben needs right now is to think about the [2022] World Cup.”
‘He needs to trust himself… he needs to perform well three times in a row’
It was intriguing to hear the Chelsea manager work through the Loftus-Cheek conundrum – not a question of too much youthful exuberance, he said, but perhaps too little. “The future is only there if you live up to it in the present,” Tuchel said. “He needs to trust himself. It is not a matter of over-confidence. It is the opposite. He needs to feel confidence in his body and in his ability to do this [perform well] not once, twice but three, four, 10, 20 times in a row. And the next step is to do it three times in a row.”
That kind of confidence does not come, Tuchel said with a chuckle, from being “big, tall and good-looking” – all of which Loftus-Cheek certainly has in his favour. “It comes from experience,” Tuchel said, and in that respect he felt that the Bernabeu experience would be helpful. “He lacked the stability to be on loan, the key player, He lacks this history. It’s not like he was absolutely the key player when he went on loan but he showed his potential. It is always potential. He is a very nice, quiet guy.”
“I don’t think he is fully aware of what he can produce, what he can physically give. He is still in the situation where he accepts limits too early. He is used to that and this is where we are. We will keep on pushing.”
Gallagher has certainly achieved much closer to that status of the key man on loan. His next move will be critical. Loftus-Cheek came back to Chelsea from Palace in 2018 and played in some big games that season for Maurizio Sarri. The injury he developed towards the end of it all but wiped out the next season under Frank Lampard, and he would not have played at all in 2019-2020 had it not been for lockdown and the delayed end to the season.
Palace loanee Gallagher ‘needs something to fight for’
As for Gallagher, Tuchel said that he could be a Chelsea player next season but stopped well short of declaring it a certainty. “I am not the only one to decide,” he said. “After speaking with everybody we see what Conor wants. We need to see what he wants, his goals, what to fight for.
“He needs something to fight for, to accept a role and have a perspective of where you are and what you can achieve. Some we need to be clear with him and he needs to be clear with us. We will sort it out. His development is excellent and extraordinary. He is one of the key players in Crystal Palace and made a huge step in his development up front. He was a pleasure to coach in pre-season. He has so much positive energy … he can be a big help and a big influence.”
The message was that the path forward for those with potential at a club that produces many fine young players can be complex, whether that is the restrictions of a loan deal or still awaiting career lift-off aged 26. Gallagher has done the difficult bit establishing himself as Premier League-ready. As he potentially watches Loftus-Cheek on Sunday try to maintain his latest run of form, the younger man will know that there are many more steps that lie ahead.
