Nizaar Kinsella’s piece in the Evening Standard today claims that Chelsea’s sister club Strasbourg are interested in Boca Junior Valentin Barco, with a January bid possible.
He could go into their first team right away, but long term could move to Chelsea once he’s settled in Europe and if he proves his level.
As others have said, it seems faintly mad that this setup hasn’t been used more already. In the case of Angelo Gabriel, Deivid Washington and others, they’re clearly more cut out for Strasbourg for the foreseeable future anyway, and should have been bought by them, with Chelsea able to sign them in the future if they prove their worth. Instead, their costs are dragging our FFP numbers down, and making sales of key first team players like Gallagher more likely.
It would also save Chelsea some of their limited non-domestic loan slots, solving a lot of the problems they’ve had this season.
