Gary O’Neil has pointed the finger at BlueCo, owners of both Chelsea and Strasbourg, for their recruitment strategy as he questioned the culture around the Ligue 1 club
Gary O’Neil has accused BlueCo, the owners of Chelsea and Strasbourg, of “messing up” recruitment this season at the Ligue 1 side and questioned the club’s culture.
The former Wolves and Bournemouth coach was appointed in January after Liam Rosenior moved to Stamford Bridge and has overseen two semi-final defeats in the last month as the club exited the Coupe de France and the Conference League.
Criticism of the running of the club bears striking similarity to the doubts cast over the current state of Chelsea, with the Blues’ recruitment, managerial instability and general lack of direction among multiple sources of anger from supporters.
Chelsea are ninth in the Premier League having sacked Rosenior in April after only three months and have not won since March 4 in the league. Fans of both clubs came together in a joint protest against BlueCo – a consortium led by Behdad Eghbali’s Clearlake Capital and investor Todd Boehly – outside Stamford Bridge ahead of the Blues’ defeat by Manchester United in April.
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Strasbourg have won six of their 14 league games under O’Neil’s management but defeats by Nice in April and over two legs against Rayo Vallecano ended their hopes of silverware and with it their last chance of qualifying for Europe next season. The manager believes recruitment during the January transfer window weakened rather than strengthened his squad.
Striker David Datro Fofana and defender Aaron Anselmino were loaned from Chelsea while the influential Mamadou Sarr, who spent the first half of the season on loan from Stamford Bridge, was recalled to west London. Ecuador international Kendry Paez also had his season-long loan cut short by Chelsea and was immediately loaned out again to River Plate in Argentina.
“I need two centre-forwards,” said O’Neil following Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Angers, 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.”
Of Sunday’s performance, he said: “I am angry. I hope that the players are, too. There are two matches left and they have to show me that they have to level to play with us next season. But we won’t get anywhere playing like that.
“They really disappointed me, even more so than on Thursday (against Vallecano). They have to do better. The world of football is full of sharks. They need to know that. I told them that we were playing a final and they didn’t play like they had to.”
