Chelsea-bound Strasbourg star fails to calm angry ultras in bizarre intervention | OneFootball

The transformation of Strasbourg from an independent football club with more than 120 years of history into a shell that exists to serve Chelsea has rightly angered the local fans who were only too happy to show their emotions on Thursday.

Strasbourg, who share the same BlueCo owners as Chelsea, have suffered the kind of season that makes fans wonder why they even bother. A project led by Liam Rosenior was stopped in its tracks by BlueCo dictating that Rosenior is now Chelsea boss, only to sack him after 106 days. That mess has turned the mood around the French club into outright disdain for the American investment group.

Strasbourg are eighth in Ligue 1 and any hope of success this season was reliant on their Conference League campaign which has just come to an end at the hands of Rayo Vallecano.

A 2-0 defeat across both legs by the Spanish side means that Strasbourg fans are now left to contemplate what it means to be a feeder club and so who better to play peacekeeper than Chelsea-bound Emmanuel Emegha?

Strasbourg fans have known since September that this was the last season they would see the Dutch striker in their colours, who is joining Chelsea for a reported fee of £22m. That’s their club captain with 31 goals in 78 games going for the same price that Antony went to Betis for.

Emegha missed the game with a hamstring injury and is now going to be out for the season with no Conference League final to play and it’s been the story of his season having started just four Ligue 1 games this campaign.

So it is hardly any surprise that when he approached the booing Strasbourg fans, they didn’t exactly meet him with kindness.

Emegha, who for some reason was wearing sunglasses despite it being nighttime, approached the fans wearing a chain necklace that probably costs more than most of the fans’ annual wage, and starts to do the calm down gesture with his right hand. Left hand still in his pocket by the way.

As he does so, Diego Moreira – who played and you know, actually contributed – comes across and pulls Emegha back.

He then whispers something in Emegha’s ear, presumably along the lines of “not going to lie mate, but other than Todd Boehly, you may be the worst person on the planet to confront the fans currently.”

Emegha argues back, maybe offering some kind of retort as “but they will remember the four league goals I’ve scored all year,” before removing his shades and putting both hands out to the fans before gesturing back to the team.

Strasbourg fans are simply not having it, prompting Moreira to head off back down the tunnel. Emegha then turns to clap his team-mates at which point some, not all, of the home fans do applaud the players.

The whole thing can be summed up by saying “just one big mess” and it’s a situation hardly likely to improve in the next few years.

Strasbourg fans know that any hint of prospect from a manager or player will be gobbled up by the BlueCo Chelsea machine, while they become a shell of what they once were.