Chelsea were branded pathetic for how they handled the announcements of Conor Gallagher’s departure and the arrival of Joao Felix.
The Blues posted a heartwarming video of Gallagher talking about how much playing for the club meant to him, alongside clips of him in the academy all the way to captaining the first team.
That was in complete contrast to how the club engineered his exit, exiling him from the first team and forcing him out.
The England midfielder joined Atletico Madrid and was unveiled at the Wanda Metropolitano on Wednesday night.
Felix joined in the opposite direction, with Chelsea needing to do a deal with Atletico so the Gallagher move went through.
The Portugal forward was announced as returning ‘home’, despite only previously spending a brief loan spell at Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea opted against making permanent at the time.
talkSPORT presenters Hugh Woozencroft and Flex were seething over the way Chelsea handled it all.
Woozencroft said: “To add insult to injury, they made out that Conor Gallagher was a young player at the club they couldn’t bare to lose. It was heartbreaking to see someone who was one of their own and they put interviews up of him talking about what it meant to him to be a Chelsea player, shots of him in the academy.
“Heartwarming video from Conor Gallagher’s side, but he will look at that and say ‘hold on a minute, that underlines how much I wanted to be a Chelsea player and shows how much you didn’t want me here’.
“How can you watch that and not think this is a player we want at our football club. It’s crazy, particularly when they were doing the business for you on the football pitch.
“Also, are they trying to kid us all? They said he is taking his next step in his football adventure as if he’s going on to bigger and better things and we couldn’t stop him like when Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale went off to Real Madrid.
“It is crazy to think you couldn’t have kept him.”
Flex added: “On top of that, the Joao Felix post says ‘home again’. What!? They went into the window wanting [Samu] Omorodion, but didn’t quite get him and had to take this guy because they needed to do a deal with Atletico so Gallagher goes the other way.
“To put ‘home again’ after letting Gallagher go is just awful. And they put ‘Chelsea is where he belongs’. Chelsea weren’t interested in him two weeks ago.
“If this is where he belongs and you can’t wait to get Joao Felix back home to Stamford Bridge and Cobham, then why wasn’t he one of your primary targets during the window… pathetic.”
Flex added: “Gallagher – after Cole Palmer – was their best player last season.
“For large parts of the season, he had the most regains, the most tackles, covered the most ground, he had the captain’s armband.
“He really stood up during a disappointing time for Chelsea. With Enzo Fernandes and Moises Caicedo not showing up, Romeo Lavia not there, you tell me who the £100m player in Chelsea’s midfield was last year?”
Nobody quite knows what will happen next at Chelsea with more departures expected as they try to trim down their already bloated squad.
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That has not stopped them signing a remarkable 10 players already this summer.
Alongside Gallagher, Armando Broja, Trevoh Chalobah and Romelu Lukaku were forced to train away from the first team.
Then Enzo Maresca decided Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell were surplus to requirements and exiled as well.
To add insult to injury, Sterling’s number seven shirt number was handed to Pedro Neto.
