Yesterday’s reports from Brazil about Andrey Santos returning to Strasbourg on loan are getting backing from sources in France today.
Cyril Olives-Berthet, who writes for L’Equipe, says that the loan is going to go through shortly, with the French club (owned by the same owners as Chelsea) paying half the Brazilian’s wages.
There is one interesting new wrinkle however – the French club will have an option to buy the 20 year old outright during the loan.
As per RTI, Strasbourg has an option to buy with the loan of Andrey Santos. Strasbourg will pay half of his wages. Ajax and Porto were interested too, but Chelsea chose to loan him back to Strasbourg in order to keep some control https://t.co/4msVte1Uh4
— Cyril Olivès-Berthet (@CyrilOlives) July 23, 2024
The Blues paid £18m to Vasco for him in January 2023, and will obviously set the buy price higher than that. Although their real aim may be to get a much bigger and richer team to come in. Selling him to a club they already own doesn’t do much to help them.
As Olives-Berthet points out, Porto and Ajax were both keen on the number 6, but Chelsea elected to return him to Strasbourg so they maintain some control in his future, presumably hoping to build up his value further before they do eventually cash in.
A Brazilian anticlimax
It’s all going to be a bit of a flat ending to the story of a player we briefly got hyped up for. The midfielder was brought in with promises of one day being a first team player, got sent out on a couple of loans, and will now presumably spend the year on loan at Strasbourg before a bigger team comes in and buys him.
If all goes well we will make a bit of money, but it will still feel like an anticlimax. In the end, despite the big talk, it doesn’t feel like he ever was being seriously considered as a first team option, just an asset farmed around our system.
This is likely to be a pattern we get have to get used to.
