Lately, it feels like four out of every five transfer news stories involving Chelsea are about a player leaving. In this transfer window, the club initially made several signings, but recently, they've been focused on offloading players who are no longer part of their future plans, and they've been largely successful in doing so.
It's not even a week since Joao Felix officially joined Al Nassr permanently and Mike Penders moved to Strasbourg on loan, and now reports have emerged suggesting that another Chelsea player is nearing an exit. He is headed to France as well.
Football London reported that Chelsea have agreed a deal with Strasbourg for Ishe Samuels-Smith to move to the French club on a permanent contract. This agreement comes after weeks of negotiations involving the player.
The report further states that the initial plan was for the youngster to go out on loan this summer, but the French side showed a keen interest in the player. The defender is now set to fly to France to finalise the move.
Chelsea defender Ishe Samuels-Smith set to join Strasbourg after agreement reached
Chelsea signed Samuels-Smith from Everton in 2023 for a fee of just €4.7 million. The English youngster can play both at centre-back and left-back. He hasn’t managed to make his senior debut for the Blues, although he was seen on the bench on some occasions last season.
It’s still unclear if there’s a buy-back clause in the deal for the defender, as was the case with Mathis Amougou, who also joined the French side a while ago. However, even if no clause is included, bringing the player back wouldn’t be much of an issue given the close ties between the two clubs under same ownership.
Strasbourg have quickly emerged as a destination for Chelsea to send players who are not currently in the Blues’ immediate plans, to help them develop. Until now, this experiment has yielded positive results, Andrey Santos is a prime example. Let’s see if that holds true in the future as well.