Gary O’Neil is a frustrated figure at Strasbourg, expressing his anger towards his players and accusing the club owners of making mistakes during the January transfer window.
O’Neil took charge of the French side in January, replacing Liam Rosenior who moved to Chelsea, a position O’Neil was later dismissed from. Initially, the former Bournemouth and Wolves manager had a promising start in France, but his team has struggled with results recently.
He hasn’t held back in expressing his dissatisfaction, telling the board that he needs to bring in two strikers this summer and that the club made an error by not strengthening the squad during the winter window.
Strasbourg is owned by BlueCo, the same company that owns Chelsea, which is led by Todd Boehly.
‘We really need to work hard this summer to be better. We’ve already had meetings about recruitment,’ O’Neil said, according to L’Equipe. ‘I need two strikers. The owners want to give me the resources to perform next season. But we also need to improve the club culture, the quality of the players, and the squad depth.’
‘We messed up in January, during the transfer window. We weakened ourselves instead of strengthening the team.’
O’Neil’s frustrations have been growing, and they reached a boiling point after the 1-1 draw with Angers on Sunday, when he criticized his players.
‘We didn’t do enough to win, we didn’t have the quality for it. We got what we deserved. Monaco lost and we had the opportunity to close the gap on them. We blew it,’ he said.
‘It’s kind of a symbol of our season. We can do so much better. I’m angry. I hope the players are too. There are two games left and they have to show me they’re good enough to play with us next year. But with a performance like tonight, we won’t achieve anything playing like that.
‘They disappointed me so much, even more than on Thursday. They have to do better. Football is a shark tank, they need to realize that. I told them we were playing a Cup final and we really didn’t play the way we should have.’
BlueCo faces a significant decision in London soon, as they need to appoint a permanent manager for Chelsea.
Bookmakers have Xabi Alonso as the favorite to become the next permanent Blues manager, ahead of former Chelsea full-back Filipe Luis and Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola.
Calum McFarlane is still in charge until the end of the season but is struggling, with Chelsea slipping to ninth in the Premier League table.
With an FA Cup final against Manchester City coming up and just two more league matches, there is a real possibility that Chelsea could miss out on European competition next season.
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