So far Chelsea’s relationship with their new sister club Strasbourg has been pretty simple. We’ve loaned them Angelo Gabriel, and we injected them with money that helped them make some impressive summer transfers.
Now things could be about to get more complex, with the case of Habib Diarra emerging.
The 19 year old is already a Strasbourg player, emerging as one of the top talents from their academy. But the Alsatian club are struggling to offer him a new contact that he will accept, and may need Chelsea to step in. According to Jonathon Smith’s column for Caughtoffside, the Blues could buy Diarra and then loan him back, if it came down to it:
“Chelsea have been linked with Strasbourg youngster Habib Diarra – he’s a very talented young midfielder, Senegalese-born but a French youth international, who’s wanted out of the club after impressing in the last year or so. He doesn’t necessarily see his long-term future at Strasbourg, but the ownership have been loathe to sell a player with such significant potential,” Johnson wrote.
“I think this is where the Chelsea link has come from, due to their Strasbourg connection, it’s a way to move the player within the club ownership model and to continue to allow him to develop.
“We haven’t for the moment seen too many players moving back and forth between Chelsea and Strasbourg, but Angelo has made a good start to life in Ligue 1 since joining on loan from Chelsea. A potential worst-case scenario could be that he moves to Chelsea and that’s one way to do a deal, though there was also significant interest in Diarra from Lens during the summer.
“Diarra is on a pretty lengthy contract, until 2027, so that’s not a big concern for Strasbourg, but one concern is the value of that contract as he’s developed so much since signing that deal, so that needs to be re-valued and re-negotiated. That puts them in a tricky position as he now aspires to play regular European football, so Strasbourg might have to consider doing a deal with Chelsea to keep him in the group.
“Still, I wouldn’t say he’s ready for a big move like Chelsea just yet. I think his development would be better served by staying in Ligue 1, but we’ll see if this situation is resolved by January because at the moment it’s a bit of a concern for Strasbourg.”
There is of course also the potential that Diarra could one day play for us – but so far that looks less likely than him simply becoming another asset in our network.
