Did a record Deadline Day Chelsea deal collapse amid threat of sanctions?

Tom Weber

Updated: 31 Aug 2024 05:39 CDT
3 min read

Strasbourg's record signing of Deivid Washington from sister club Chelsea collapsed not once but twice on Deadline Day.

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Early on Friday, a surprising rumour emerged linking the Brazilian youngster with a big-money move to the Ligue 1 side and it caused quite a stir on social media.

Chelsea only signed Washington from Santos last year, paying a sizeable €16 million for the teenager as part of their policy of snapping up the brightest young talents in the world.

However, things did not go to plan for the 19-year-old in his first season in west London, with the player featuring in just 25 minutes of senior football. Nevertheless, Strasbourg were reportedly 'willing' to pay up to €21m for him - a club-record fee.

Given that both Chelsea and Strasbourg are owned by BlueCo, this was seen as a blatant attempt by the former to use the latter to balance the books, with the Premier League giant reportedly determined to raise an additional €20m before the deadline.

Current ETV

Deivid Washington

F (C)

Chelsea

Deivid Washington

F (C)

Chelsea

ETV Range

€4.3M - €7.1M

Did Chelsea buckle under threat of sanctions?

Earlier this summer, the Ligue 1 side had signed Diego Moreira permanently from Chelsea after a season in which he made just 10 senior appearances - one for the Blues, nine for Lyon - for a fee initially reported as €2m. Later, it was revealed that a significant €8m-€9m had actually been paid.

This was already a very controversial transfer, but the proposed move of Washington would have trumped this. It ultimately never materialised. In the evening, French media began reporting that the deal had been 'cancelled' only for English media to report shortly thereafter that negotiations had restarted.

When the window slammed shut, however, it became clear that the prospective transfer was off for good. It begs the question: why did it fail?

So far, the real reason has not been disclosed but that has not stopped media outlets from speculating. The obvious answer is that the two clubs simply couldn't reach an agreement even though they are technically owned by the same people.

But already last summer, Strasbourg president Marc Keller and then-coach Patrick Vieira were offered the chance to sign Washington and turned it down. Keller may have once again been reluctant to make a move for him especially since it now would have required a record outlay.

There is also the possibility that BlueCo got cold feet. Both the Premier League and UEFA reserve the right to investigate dubious transfer dealings and such a move between two clubs who share an ownership structure may have caught the attention of the authorities.

This is, however, unsubstantiated speculation. L'Equipe insists that this is 'clearly not' what happened because the talks were reignited after they had initially collapsed, but the same outlet posited this exact scenario in a previous version of the cited article. We may never know for sure.