A great signing imo. Personally I’m very surprised he accepted the deal, from Brighton to Strasbourg feels like a step backwards.

I’m glad we have him on our books now, clearly a very highly rated player. If he develops further, great we have another brilliant player on our hands.

Signed by Strasbourg but perhaps loaned to Chelsea if the deal for simons falls through due to FFP?

Surprisingly cheap signing really, he's looked a good prospect and £16m nowadays seems pretty decent value. That being said I don't see him ever playing for Chelsea if we sign Simons.

Strasbourg should make it far in Conference League

Multi club ownership is one of the worst things in football.

Hope the Strasbourg fans keep protesting.

3 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Surprisingly cheap signing really, he's looked a good prospect and £16m nowadays seems pretty decent value. That being said I don't see him ever playing for Chelsea if we sign Simons.

16mill? Even Sanchez cost us more from them. What gives?

Repeated serious knee injuries before the age of 21. Small fee for a talented player but this is likely the best price Brighton will ever get for him and given the pace of the PL, he may never really have a career in England depending on how he recovers.

Expect us to flip him to Serie A in a few years for a loan with option to buy.

If this was 2023 i'd be very excited but the knee injuries have really hampered him recently. Hopefully he can turn it around in France as he looked a great talent.

For the value its a risk worth taking.

I’m sure it’s perfectly legal but doesn’t this just feel a proper dirty way of doing business?

I think this is where frustration and head scratching comes from the fans.

I know some of these deals are opportunistic and that’s fair enough. I understand that player flipping is part of our model(if it generates funds great).

But all of this should be done in order to help the first team be the best it can be. When we see first team positions that clearly need improvement. When we see fines and potential sanctions on the first team.When we see a full team of bomb squad players hanging around cobham like bad smells, and these players talk so they know how the club are treating them it seems to me that it’s not helping the first team very much.

My mantra has always been, get the first team squad in order for the coming season then worry about side hassles. We have been scrapping to get the Simons deal over the line but can pull another £20m out our arse for Brighton no problem.

11 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

BlueCo signing, this is is just bs.

9 hours ago, Sheva said:

Multi club ownership is one of the worst things in football.

Hope the Strasbourg fans keep protesting.

It's not great but as it's not illegal and never will be I would rather we try to elevate both clubs instead of others who don't even bother improving their sister teams.

I see this signing as another way to ensure Strasbourg make CL this season.

Are Strasbourg allowed to make CL assuming we do?

There was something incredibly dodgy about how they threw it away in the last 2 games last season.

20 minutes ago, Remodez said:

It's not great but as it's not illegal and never will be I would rather we try to elevate both clubs instead of others who don't even bother improving their sister teams.

I see this signing as another way to ensure Strasbourg make CL this season.

It’s not always about winning from a fan perspective. Stripping away their identity just to make them a feeder club and a place to stock pile players for us is just wrong. We are using them to get around the rules and I blame governing bodies for it.

I use this word a lot but BlueCo are soulless and it’s another thing I despise about modern football.

If it was me I would ban it tomorrow and force these groups to give up ownership. Nothing but support for the Strasbourg fans who speak out and protest against them. If the shoe was on the other foot this forum would be in meltdown.

12 minutes ago, Sheva said:

It’s not always about winning from a fan perspective. Stripping away their identity just to make them a feeder club and a place to stock pile players for us is just wrong. We are using them to get around the rules and I blame governing bodies for it.

I use this word a lot but BlueCo are soulless and it’s another thing I despise about modern football.

If it was me I would ban it tomorrow and force these groups to give up ownership. Nothing but support for the Strasbourg fans who speak out and protest against them. If the shoe was on the other foot this forum would be in meltdown.

I'm not invalidating their fans feelings, they are 100% correct.

The issue is you can't ban it as it's EU law so seeing as it's going to happen anyway I would at least like us to elevate both teams, which seems to be the plan, instead of doing what City did with Troyes for example getting them relegated and the whole Savinho fiasco.

Edited August 21, 2025Aug 21 by Remodez

29 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Are Strasbourg allowed to make CL assuming we do?

There was something incredibly dodgy about how they threw it away in the last 2 games last season.

The club already had plans in place to allow this to happen.

I didn't watch the final games but I highly doubt they threw the games away on purpose.

1 hour ago, C3blue said:

I think this is where frustration and head scratching comes from the fans.

I know some of these deals are opportunistic and that’s fair enough. I understand that player flipping is part of our model(if it generates funds great).

But all of this should be done in order to help the first team be the best it can be. When we see first team positions that clearly need improvement. When we see fines and potential sanctions on the first team.When we see a full team of bomb squad players hanging around cobham like bad smells, and these players talk so they know how the club are treating them it seems to me that it’s not helping the first team very much.

My mantra has always been, get the first team squad in order for the coming season then worry about side hassles. We have been scrapping to get the Simons deal over the line but can pull another £20m out our arse for Brighton no problem.

Yes, but didn't Strasbourg sign him? If so, this doesn't count towards our finances and has nothing to do with the Simons deal...

Strasbourg signed him not Chelsea, not good enough for us and wont be coming here, where would he play?

if he has a good season, he will be sold for profit

2 minutes ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

Strasbourg signed him not Chelsea, not good enough for us and wont be coming here, where would he play?

if he has a good season, he will be sold for profit

Romano actually reporting we signed him, but loaned him to Strasbourg for a season.

£12m + add ons
- Brighton have a sell on clause
- Medical in London tomorrow
- 1 year at Strasbourg
- Returns to Chelsea summer 2026
- Will be a #CFC player until 2031 + option to extend to 2032.

Its funny seeing Arsenal fans kicking off about this, conveniently ignoring that they were actually the first club in England to use a European club to "station" players, were caught doing it and forced to stop by FIFA.

"Arsenal are the subject of a Fifa inquiry after a money-laundering investigation in Belgium threw up evidence of an unusual financial relationship between the Champions League finalists and their feeder club Beveren.

According to a report by the BBC's Newsnight last night, opaque investments made in Beveren in 2001 drew the attention of Christian Du Four, the investigating magistrate in the Flemish region of Dendermonde. Fearing that the funds - initially a one-off payment of £1m - were being drawn from mafia sources, Du Four began to investigate their provenance.

"A company with no name wanted to invest £1m in the club," said Du Four. "We thought it rather bizarre."

It became clear in the course of his fiscal probe that Arsenal, rather than criminal elements, were the source of the investments. The Premiership club had agreed in August 2001 to make a £205,000 payment to a certain Raoul de Waele in the form of an interest-free loan. The loan agreement, a copy of which is in Newsnight's possession, stipulated that the money would be used to incorporate a company called Goal, which would in turn set up another company to purchase Beveren. It was signed by Arsenal's vice-chairman David Dein."

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Romano actually reporting we signed him, but loaned him to Strasbourg for a season.

£12m + add ons
- Brighton have a sell on clause
- Medical in London tomorrow
- 1 year at Strasbourg
- Returns to Chelsea summer 2026
- Will be a #CFC player until 2031 + option to extend to 2032.

We already have 3 players officially on loan at Strasbourg through:

Penders, Sarr and Paez. Isn't the limit 3 loans?

15 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

We already have 3 players officially on loan at Strasbourg through:

Penders, Sarr and Paez. Isn't the limit 3 loans?

I haven’t a clue nor do I really care. Most obvious flip transfer.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Romano actually reporting we signed him, but loaned him to Strasbourg for a season.

£12m + add ons
- Brighton have a sell on clause
- Medical in London tomorrow
- 1 year at Strasbourg
- Returns to Chelsea summer 2026
- Will be a #CFC player until 2031 + option to extend to 2032.

We've already sent them Sarr, Paez and Penders. I don't think we can loan them anymore.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Romano actually reporting we signed him, but loaned him to Strasbourg for a season.

£12m + add ons
- Brighton have a sell on clause
- Medical in London tomorrow
- 1 year at Strasbourg
- Returns to Chelsea summer 2026
- Will be a #CFC player until 2031 + option to extend to 2032.

no Strasbourg bought him not us, unless we want to break more rules, only allowed to loan 3 players to one club