'Soulless club' - Strasbourg fans livid with Chelsea after Santos loan

Tom Weber

• Updated: 1 Feb 2024 22:13 GMT
• 3 min read

RC Strasbourg fans are already sick of their club being turned into Chelsea's farm team.

The Alsatians have loaned Blues wonderkid Andrey Santos until the end of the season, but their fans are anything but happy about it. Strasbourg head coach Patrick Vieira had wanted an experienced reinforcement and what he got was another Chelsea youngster.

Strasbourg were taken over by Todd Boehly's BlueCo in the summer as the second club - after Chelsea - of what could yet become something of a footballing empire. However, already at the time Strasbourg fans heavily protested the takeover, fearing that their club would lose their independence.

While the BlueCo funds have allowed the French side to splash the cash, the fans' fears appear to have become reality, with Strasbourg slowly but surely being turned into a farm team for the Blues - and having little to show for it.

Strasbourg fans raging

Only towards the end of 2023 did Vieira's side live up to expectations in Ligue 1, having massively underwhelmed in the early parts of the season despite significant summer investment. Strasbourg still currently languish in mid-table no man's land.

Brazilian wonderkid Angelo Gabriel was loaned from Chelsea to Strasbourg, but despite arguably being the French side's most talented player, he has not really set the world alight, with rumours abounding that he has failed to settle in France.

Santos is the latest Chelsea youngster to be shipped off to Strasbourg. Though incredibly highly rated, there are questions about whether Strasbourg actually need Santos, who has barely played football this season, not mustering more than a few Premier League minutes at Nottingham Forest in the first half of the campaign.

One Strasbourg fan responded to the club announcing Santos' signing by writing on X: "BlueCo impose their recruitment and club management policies on us. A shame we sold our soul." Another concurred: "Club without a soul!"

Santos likely won't join Strasbourg for another month due to currently being in Brazil for pre-Olympic duties, which prompted one fan to write: "I think that since I've been a Racing supporter, he's the signing that makes the least sense. He won't even have time to adapt as he'll already be back at Chelsea [by the time he returns from Brazil], we are really the doormat of Chelsea and BlueCo."