Nobody expected Strasbourg this season to fight in the European places of Ligue 1, but they are now in sixth place in the table in the hope of getting a Champions League spot on the last day.
In the very tight battle for fourth place in the French league, the last qualifying place of Champions League, there are four more clubs on their way to the last day.
The usual suspects Nice, Lille and Lyon are there, but a newcomer became a member of the leading package: Strasbourg. In 13th place last season and 15th the season before, they enjoy a historic season, even if the defeat against 13th placed Angers on the penultimate matchday has left the men of Liam Rosenior a bit behind.
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The 2024-25 season is the second since the arrival of Blueco, the consortium led by Todd Boehly that already owns Chelsea. A change from shareholder was considered necessary to “turn a corner” according to chairman Marc Keller.
Since then, Strasbourg has richly published to secure the services of promising young players throughout Europe, with a sports policy that is worthy of his big brother Chelsea, who buy every turn to prevent the future Messi from being missed.
A fully overhauled team
The four biggest transfers in the club's history have taken place since the arrival of Blueco (Auwar Sylla, Emanuel Emegha, Sekou Mara and Sebastian Nanasi), while 13 of the 15 most expensive arrivals of the club have been in the past two seasons.
Beyond are the days of a traditional Ligue 1 team with experienced leaders and a handful of promising young people from the Academy. Nowadays Strasbourg has a team with an average age of 22.1 – the youngest in Europe's top five competitions – and a completely cosmopolitan makeup: 15 different nationalities are represented in the dressing room.
It is a smart mix orchestrated by Chelsea, who borrowed their goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic and midfielder Andrey Santos on loan, because the latter had too little playing time in the British capital. Diego Moreira, who trained with the blues, also arrived in a permanent movement this summer.
An exciting young coach
After the failure of Patrick Vieira last season, Chelsea went a step further in the Anglicization of the Straatsbourg dressing room this summer by Liam Rosenior, 40 and fresh to name his championship from Hull City.
He quickly imposed an attacking playing style and brought an Armada together from talented young players who have raised their ambitions among him.
“I remember that when I arrived in France, people laughed. They said they didn't know who I was. It motivates you to do it well. The work is not ready. There are still great things for us,” the coach said at the time of his extension until 2028.
At the start of the season, his young class rumbled his way before he understands his feature philosophy, who the supporter of powerful pressures and a desire to withdraw opponents by playing a very slowly passing game.
“When I arrived, the intensity really changed to training, and that helps everyone to be fit enough to cover the distance at high intensity,” Rosenior AFP said in an interview.
It is an intensity that Strasbourg sometimes cost a lot at the start of the season when they had expired a few before they learned to better manage the competitions. Since February 9, Strasbourg has only lost one match last weekend, and they have claimed the scalp of Lyon (4-2) and Paris Saint-Germain (2-1) (2-1), while he abolished Nice (2-2) and Monaco (0-0).
Joie de vivre
After every victory, the same ritual: a pie dance in the middle of the dressing room, the steps of which were often repeated during the week between training sessions. This very young group has begun to make a name for his infectious Joie de Vivre, which shows that football is not only a profession, but also a passion that can be shared.
However, as Liam Rosenior often assures us, although his players are always ready to go out completely and have some fun, they also know when it is time to concentrate and work.
This youth is a power, “Felix Lemarechal told AFP. We run more, we communicate without shame. With the players who are all at the same age, we can immediately say things. We all have the same way of talking.
His coach agrees and even believes that there is a “natural connection” between his young players, who helps to create a coherent unit of striker Emegha to goalkeeper Petrovic: “The players like to play with each other and everyone is dedicated to stop a shot with the desire to always move forward.”
The star players
It is not for nothing that RCSA is the Ligue 1 team that has covered most kilometers in a sprint, but in the middle of this very athletic collective, different people also attracted attention.
Emanuel Emegha, a Dutch striker who arrived in 2023 and enjoys a real breakthrough season (14 scored goals, the fifth in the competition), is one and Chelsea loaner Andrey Santos is another, nine goals and three assists alongside countless tackles and recovery.
Andrey Santos has an excellent season of StatesPeachform an excellent season
“I love him. He is my Rodri (…) His technical capacity to break down lines and to make the right decisions with the ball is worth an older player. He is far ahead of his time,” says Rosenior.
Dilane Bakwa, recruited from Bordeaux for € 10 million in 2023, has been performed in the absence of Emegha, and Nanasi is an amazing Swedish midfielder with five goals and four assists to his name.
But all these stars, which monitor Chelsea, are probably not in Strasbourg next season, unless some of them want to play in the Champions League with the Alsatian Club if they are eligible.
Unhappy fans
The changes owned is not going well with the local fans. They believe that their club has become the B team of Chelsea, far away from the strong identity of the RCSA in the past.
As a sign of protest against this model imposed by Blueco, the Ultra Boys 90 supporter group will strike for the first 15 minutes of each of the club matches, despite the good results. They fear that Strasbourg will again disappear from professional football, as they did during the IMG-McCormack years (1997-2003) and the Jafar Hilali period (2009-2011), among two investors who eventually sell the club for a symbolic euro.
At the end of January, Captain Habib Diarra called on the team that the team was welcomed “from start to finish” after a victory over Lille. It was a statement that distributed the stands at the Meinau, with a certain edge of asatian supporters who believed that the Ultra Boys 90 were too hard in maintaining the results and the financial security that BlueCo provides.
It stands for this divided fan base that Strasbourg hopes to qualify for the Champions League, in a home game against Le Havre. Would the qualification for the Champions League be sufficient to unite everyone?
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