Chelsea Boss Pochettino Launches Fierce Defence of Gallagher Amid Mascot Incident

Conor Gallagher was defended by Mauricio Pochettino after the Chelsea manager took aim at online bullies.

The incident at the Stamford Bridge tunnel occurred just prior to Chelsea’s Premier League match against Burnley last week. Gallagher was seen reaching out to give a little mascot a high five, but the footballer only gave him a bump on the shoulder before leaving the pitch. Following the video’s rapid rise on social media, some fans accused the midfield player of racism.

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Later, Chelsea released an official statement in which they defended their player, saying the whole situation had been ‘taken out of context’. They also criticised the anger and bullying directed at the England international on social media.

After the club released their statement, manager Mauricio Pochettino has now come out in defence of Gallagher as he told reporters at the pre-match press conference, “That has upset me so much because no one wants to do something like this with this intention. He was so wary of too many videos, photography and pictures about if he was really aware of both mascots. When you play football, when you are there and you are focusing on too many things, you focus on playing, to start the game, and that sometimes can happen.

“But I think people want to abuse people. People always try to find things to create a mess and to abuse the people that, if you know … I know Conor. I know the people that are involved here in Chelsea. I can talk for the people that I know and come on, never is that intention. Conor is a great, great kid and is always caring about everything.”

He added, “I hate when the people feel free to abuse on social media in things like this. You don’t believe that we need to stop these types of things? It’s like today if abusing people is so easy and then it is to pay attention to that when it never happened. To give too much attention to the people who want to create this type of thing, this mess, and to insult and abuse other people, please stop. I think we are all responsible for that. How is it possible that the intention of Conor is to ignore a mascot? Come on. And then, come on, it makes me very sad because I know Conor and he does not deserve to be abused.

“No one deserves to be abused but him, come on, knowing him… I am seeing too many things happening not only in England but in the rest of the world. Our responsibility altogether is to try to ignore these types of things and the people who try to create these types of things never help our lives. Of course, in the game that we are involved in, football, the people that come, do not deserve to pay attention. We need to keep moving and for me, it is about to support Conor, to support all the people that sometimes get abused.”

The Blues, who have only won two of their last five Premier League games, will look to reverse that trend when they host Manchester United on Thursday in a crucial league match.