Chelsea owners BlueCo messed up Strasbourg recruitment, claims O´Neill

Gary O’Neill believes BlueCo, the owners of Chelsea and Strasbourg, “messed up” the Ligue 1 side’s January transfer window and caused a downturn in form.

O’Neill took the reins at Strasbourg at the start of 2026 following Liam Rosenior’s switch to Chelsea.

Since taking over, O’Neill has won six of his 15 Ligue 1 matches in charge (D5 L4), averaging a 40% win rate, though it has been in other competitions in which his team have fallen short.

Strasbourg were dumped out of the Conference League at the semi-final stage after a 2-0 aggregate defeat to Rayo Vallecano, while they also fell in the final four of the Coupe de France, losing 2-0 at home to Nice.

They are eighth in Ligue 1 and unable to qualify for Europe, though O’Neill believes the club’s recruitment in January hindered their chances of progression, even suggesting that the team got weaker, rather than stronger.

“I need two centre-forwards,” said O’Neil, as reported by L’Equipe.

“The owners want to give me the means to perform next season, but we have to improve the culture around the club, the quality of the players, and the depth of the squad.

“We messed up in the January transfer window. We weakened instead of improving the squad.”

David Datro Fofana and Aaron Anselmino were loaned from Chelsea to Strasbourg, while Gessime Yassine joined from USL Dunkerque for a reported €7m transfer fee.

Mamadou Sarr, who had been influential under Rosenior during the first half of the season, was also recalled to Stamford Bridge.

Ecuador international Kendry Paez also had his season-long loan cut short by Chelsea and was immediately loaned out again, this time to River Plate.