The RC Strasbourg's checkbook continues to heat. After having already spent without counting since the opening of the transfer window, the Alsatian club has just formalized a new arrival. A promising young player in the youth categories, who strengthens a key sector. On paper, everything is fine. But this new transfer, far from harmless, is the symbol of a strategy that is increasingly worried about supporters and observers. Wouldn't the club lose its soul?
IShe Samuels-Smith, 19 and pure product of the Chelsea-Strasbourg axis
This newcomer is ISCHE Samuels-Smith, a young 19-year-old left-wing side. He arrives from Chelsea for an amount of 7.5 million euros, more bonus. A bet on the future, like almost all of the summer recruits. Except that this transfer is not a whim. There is the vivid proof of the functioning of the Galaxy Blueco, the common owner of Chelsea and Strasbourg. The London-Strasbourg axis is running at full speed, and the Alsatian club is increasingly like a luxury reserve team for the Blues.
With this signature, the invoice of the Strasbourg summer transfer window now exceeds 80 million euros. A colossal, historical sum, but which is spent almost exclusively on young people with high potential (Panichelli, Amougou, Barco…). The experience is sacrificed on the altar of “players trading”, and that's what makes teeth cringe.
Glus of € 80M spent: the Blueco project which worries all Strasbourg
A project that divides and worried
This recruitment policy, dictated by Blueco, fractures the club. On the one hand, a direction which welcomes itself to investing massively to target Europe. On the other, supporters, especially ultras, who cry out for betrayal. “Blueco Out” banners, strikes in encouragement … anger rises. Fans fear seeing their club losing their identity, becoming a simple pawn in the financial strategy of an American investment fund, with the risk of knowing the same fate as Troyes, relegated after its acquisition by City Football Group.
The Samuels-Smith case is emblematic of this discomfort. Instead of being enthusiastic about the arrival of a young talent, many see it only one more line in an Excel spreadsheet, an asset to be valued before a probable return to Chelsea. Racing may have gained financial power, but it is losing what made its strength: the fervor of an audience who no longer recognizes himself in this project. Summer is historic on the accounting level, but it could leave deep scars in the hearts of the Alsatians.
