What can Conor Gallagher learn from Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s Chelsea path?

An offshoot of Chelsea’s dominance in the (soon-to-be-ending) time of Roman Abramovich has been the accumulation – and often flipping – of the brightest and best young footballers in Europe. A steady stream of personnel that at most were handy squad players – a regular starter like Mason Mount very much the exception – and at the very least generating the kind of cash you and I might consider “beer money”.

That conveyor belt will not necessarily come to a halt once the sale of Chelsea goes through to whichever prospective owner wins that race. Cobham has established itself as a hub of excellence, honing and refining the stars of tomorrow.

Perhaps most indicative of that is Conor Gallagher – very much of the here and now given his body of work for Crystal Palace. And there might be no better indication of his industrious qualities than how, shorn of his presence against his parent club in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final, Palace so lacked their usual dynamism.

By the time he did make it on the pitch, it was to console his temporary teammates after their 2-0 defeat, applauding those in red and blue in the stands who will remember his exploits this season, long after he is gone. The proof of that came before the game had kicked off.

When Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s name was read out at Wembley shortly before kick-off, there were cheers from all corners of the ground. During the 2016/17 season, Loftus-Cheek was their pre-cursor to Gallagher: a young upstart borrowed from the blue part of west London with buckets of talent and something to realise.

On 65 minutes Loftus-Cheek broke Palace hearts, opening the scoring with a fine volley as part of a strong 65-minute performance that began in the 25th when he was brought on to replace the