Todd Boehly appears to have ruled out a summer move for Andrey Santos, insisting Chelsea are ‘really excited’ about what the midfielder can add to Enzo Maresca’s squad.
Chelsea fended off stiff competition to sign Santos, 21, from Vasco da Gama in January 2023, before immediately loaning the youngster back to the Brazilian outfit for the remainder of the season.
Santos went on to join Nottingham Forest on a temporary basis the following summer, but made just two first-team appearances across a disappointing five-month spell at the City Ground.
However, over the last season-and-a-half, Santos has managed to get his career back on track in French football on loan at Strasbourg – Chelsea’s sister club, also owned by Boehly’s BlueCo consortium.
While Strasbourg narrowly missed out on European football on the final day of the Ligue 1 season, Santos earned himself plenty of admirers across an eye-catching campaign, racking up ten goals and three assists for Liam Rosenior’s men.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal everyday
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
Rosenior had been keen to keep hold of Santos beyond the summer, while recent reports claimed Arsenal and PSG were both ‘working hard’ to lure the Brazil international away from Stamford Bridge.
But speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday, Chelsea co-owner Boehly confirmed Santos remained central to Maresca’s plans and would be joining up with the rest of the squad for the upcoming Club World Cup.
‘We’re going to the Club World Cup so, right now, we’re laser-focused on the Club World Cup,’ Boehly said.
‘We have some players that are joining us for the Club World Cup that weren’t on the team.
‘Andrey Santos is coming from Strasbourg. We’re really excited about him and what we think he can add to the squad.’
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
The American billionaire added: ‘The challenge that we really have is how many matches these guys are playing. The calendar is really tight, they put in so much effort and energy and the injuries are continuing to go up and up and up.
‘We’re going to have to revisit what the calendar looks like and how much football they can actually play.
‘Obviously, they’re built to play football, they love playing football, so we’re trying to find the balance of what’s the right amount of football.’
According to Boehly, Chelsea will continue their efforts to ‘build the best portfolio of players’ possible when the transfer window opens for business.
Asked if Chelsea are likely to spend big in the summer market, he replied: ‘Listen, I think we’ve done most of our investing.
‘We’re not looking at it as a spend, we’re looking at it as an investment and we’re trying to build the best portfolio of players that can perform at the highest level, for the longest periods of time.
‘I think there’s going to be a lot of investment in this window… just what I’m hearing, what we’re feeling, so there’s going to be lot of well-heeled clubs looking to add to their teams and that’s only good for the Premier League.’
Boehly is ‘excited’ about the future at Stamford Bridge, encouraging fans to be patient for success while Chelsea grapple for ‘stability’.
‘We’re excited about what the future holds. We think we’ve got one of the best young teams,’ he went on.
‘We were, early on, doing seven, eight, nine-year contracts, because we really wanted to make sure that we could keep the team together for a long time.
‘If you read a book called The Captain Class, it talks about the 15 best teams in the world and I think one of the things you see is that in order to have a really good team, you ultimately need stability within the team, within the environment.
‘The only way that comes is through time and we’ve set it up to be able to benefit from that.’
A 1-0 win over Manchester United last Friday saw Chelsea rise to fourth in the Premier League table heading into what promises to be an intriguing final day of action.
Given their far superior goal difference to Aston Villa, the Blues know they will qualify for next year’s Champions League with victory at Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
Just three days later, Maresca’s men face off against Real Betis in the Europa Conference League final against Real Betis.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.