Surprise €20m transfer a “great deal” as insider clears up Chelsea confusion | OneFootball

There was surprise and confusion last night when Fabrizio Romano revealed that Strasbourg (who share their ownership with Chelsea) were signing Julio Enciso from Brighton.

In part that was down to how Romano worded his Tweet.

Romano’s Chelsea claims confuse fans

FabRom Tweet on Julio Enciso’s future.

“Chelsea-Strasbourg closing in on agreement to sign Julio Enciso from Brighton,” the insider wrote.

“Deal details being fixed but Enciso expected to join Strasbourg for season 2025/26 then Chelsea player for the future.”

Nobody was sure whether that meant he was being bought by Chelsea and loaned there (which actually would have been impossible as we’ve reached our loan quota of 3 at one club) or if it meant that Strasbourg were signed him with a pre-arranged move to Chelsea in a year’s time.

As Ben Jacobs put it, Enciso is “viewed as a Chelsea player in the long term,” but isn’t connected to the club yet beyond their shared owners.

Graeme Bailey on Chelsea and Strasbourg’s Enciso arrangements

But transfer insider Graeme Bailey seems to have a handle on how it will work, and has today added further details for the Chelsea Chronicle:

“BlueCo love Enciso and have persuaded the player to move to Strasbourg first. I am told that Chelsea insist there is no promise of a move to Stamford Bridge – however, like with every player within the structure, if they play well then they will get a chance.

“Enciso is happy to take on that challenge and he more than thinks he is good enough – so a big 12 months coming for him in France. But at €20m – BlueCo think this is a great deal for the organisation.”

So it sounds like it’s just a simple transfer from Brighton to Strasbourg – there are no future moves included, just a promise to the player that Chelsea are ready to buy him back to the Premier League if he does well.