Crystal Palace "would love" to take Conor Gallagher from Chelsea again this summer, club chairman Steve Parish has admitted.
Gallagher joined Palace on a season-long loan in July 2021, and has since played a key role in the club's push for a top 10 Premier League finish under Patrick Vieira.
The 22-year-old has recorded eight goals and five assists in 36 games across all competitions for the Eagles, but is due back at Chelsea at the end of the season.
What has Parish said about Gallagher?
No option to buy was included in the loan deal for Gallagher, who is still under contract at Chelsea until 2025, and Parish says a final decision on his future will be made by the Blues.
The Palace chief is still holding out hope that the midfielder's services can be secured for next season, though, as he has told reporters: “Conor’s future and that decision lies not with us but with him and Chelsea. They're the people that have to decide.
“Once they decide what their choice is, they know where we are and what we want. We're not going to pretend any different but we've got to respect them as a football club because he's their player.
“At the end of the season he goes back to Chelsea and they'll make their decision. Based on that, we'll be there and if everybody thinks it's the right thing for him to come back then we would love it.
“If it doesn't work out, we wish him all the best as well.”
Palace 'start every year dreaming of being Leicester'
Even if the Eagles are unable to keep hold of Gallagher, Parish still has high hopes for the future and says they have other targets in mind to improve the squad.
Palace's end goal is to emulate unfancied 2015-16 title winners Leicester and start challenging for silverware, as their chairman added: “Obviously with Conor, we've got to see what we can do there. He's going back and we've got to either replace him or see if we can get him back.
“We've got one or two other situations that are well-documented so keeping what we've got here is an important thing. Then we've got one or two ideas of where we think we can add to make a difference, give ourselves something different, get even better at keeping the ball and be a bit more damaging when we've got it.
“There's no limit to our ambition at the football club. We'll obviously look to bring some of the youngsters through that we've got who are very good and we start every year dreaming of being Leicester.”