Conor Gallagher was sitting in a Madrid hotel room on Tuesday morning, waiting for a flight back to London to train with Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ — their Under 21s and discards — three days out from the start of the season.
It’s not how he imagined it would be when the club’s fans unfurled a banner of him at the end of last season, in recognition of his contribution as stand-in captain and relentless ball- winner. Nor when he lifted the Premier League Under 21s trophy in 2018, a year before he was named academy player of the year.