'I feel at home': £18m player is so happy at current club after leaving Chelsea on loan
Chelsea have a lot of players currently out on loan, which is not a surprise given how large their squad already is.
The above includes the likes of Andrey Santos, Lesley Ugochukwu and Alfie Gilchrist, who all left Chelsea to get more game time this season.
With the amount of options Enzo Maresca has at present, such names really would have struggled to get minutes under him.
At one stage, it was claimed that Chelsea weren’t interested in loaning out Santos, but that stance eventually changed, with the midfielder now at sister club Strasbourg for the 2024/25 campaign.
Andrey Santos happy to be back at Strasbourg
Santos spent the second half of last season on loan at Strasbourg after a short and disappointing spell with Nottingham Forest.
There, the 20-year-old made 11 appearances and scored one goal. He has since returned to the Ligue 1 club, describing them as “home”.
Speaking to Get French Football News in a recent post-match mixed zone interview, Santos said: “I wanted to come back here because the atmosphere is different. I feel at home.”
Before his return to Strasbourg, Borussia Dortmund also wanted to sign Santos. But in the end, the £18m Brazilian moved back to France.
Strasbourg a good move for Andrey Santos
Again, considering all of the options Maresca has, Santos was never going to play regularly at Stamford Bridge this season.
Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall were all ahead of the Brazil international in the pecking order.
The new Chelsea manager may not even be able to get three of those names in the same team. Maresca has so many good attackers; he may have to leave the likes of Lavia and Dewsbury-Hall on the bench.
Ultimately, Santos needed to go out on loan again and having already spent some time at Strasbourg, joining Liam Rosenior’s side was a good move for him. It remains to be seen if Santos can return to Chelsea and make it at the club one day — it will not be easy, with his employers always looking to improve.
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