Gary O’Neil has accused BlueCo, the owners of Chelsea and Strasbourg, of “messing up” recruitment this season at the Ligue 1 side and questioned the club’s culture.
The former Wolves and Bournemouth coach was appointed in January after Liam Rosenior moved to Stamford Bridge and has overseen two semi-final defeats in the last month as the club exited the Coupe de France and the Conference League.
Strasbourg have won six of their 14 league games under O’Neil’s management but defeats by Nice in April and over two legs against Rayo Vallecano ended their hopes of silverware and with it their last chance of qualifying for Europe next season.
O’Neil believes recruitment during the January transfer window weakened rather than strengthened his squad.
“I need two centre-forwards,” said O’Neil following Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Angers, reported by L’Equipe.
“The owners want to give me the means to perform next season, but we have to improve the culture around the club, the quality of the players, and the depth of the squad.
“We messed up in the January transfer window. We weakened instead of improving the squad.”
Striker David Datro Fofana and defender Aaron Anselmino were loaned from Chelsea while the influential Mamadou Sarr, who spent the first half of the season on loan from Stamford Bridge, was recalled to west London.
Ecuador international Kendry Paez also had his season-long loan cut short by Chelsea and was immediately loaned out again to River Plate in Argentina.
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