Crystal Palace boss reacts to transfer link to Chelsea midfielder

Roy Hodgson has refused to confirm whether Conor Gallagher is a transfer target for Crystal Palace – with the young Chelsea midfielder linked with the Eagles over the weekend.

The England U21 international shone on loan at Charlton Athletic in the first half of this season. It led to Swansea snapping him up in the January window with the Blues youngster keen to be part of a side challenging for Championship promotion.

Asked about Gallagher, Palace manager Hodgson replied: “Well we get linked with lots of players, it would be wrong at this moment in time to start discussing a player every time his name comes up because they are linked to us.

“I prefer to talk in more global terms. We are fully aware that the squad is quite small and particularly in the attacking areas of the field, we lost Cenk Tosun after we brought him in to help us out and Connor Wickham went out on loan.

“We know that we are short of bodies in that area, so we have got to do something about it. Everyone at the club is 100 per cent behind that, I can only hope that some of the targets we have and players we have discussed whose names and style of play will suit us are available and we can afford to bring them in.”