Chelsea star Andrey Santos shows true colours as clear Enzo Maresca transfer message sent

Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos has vowed to bounce back and push on at RC Strasbourg after captaining his loan side at the weekend. Despite only joining Liam Rosenior late on in the summer, Santos was handed a great honour in Sunday's defeat to Nice.

In his second stint at Strasbourg, Santos was named as captain for the Ligue 1 clash. He was not able to stop a poor run of form, though, as the BlueCo-owned outfit slumped to a fourth fourth defeat in five games.

It hasn't been for the want of trying for Santos, who has continued to impress in his time away from Chelsea. With five goals from a deep midfield position, only seven players have scored more than Santos across the division. Nobody else at Strasbourg has more than three.

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It is a demonstration of the ability to impact games the 20-year-old has shown throughout his young career to date. He also made quite the impact having made the January move to Strasbourg earlier this year.

Now under Rosenior, who replaced Patrick Vieira as head coach over the summer, Santos has gone from strength to strength, showing just why Chelsea were so keen to snap him up in early 2023. The club signed him for around £10million from Brazilian side Vasco da Gama.

Santos' athleticism and all-round play as a teenager (at the time) caught the eye, with Brazil's Under-20 side also turning to him as captain. He received a first senior cap last year as well.

Being selected as captain whilst only on a temporary deal is not a usual occurence, though. It is something Chelsea have seen players do in the past, most notably Reece James while at Wigan.

At the back end of the 2018/19 season, a teenage James was rewarded for his standout performances in Lancashire. It was a show of appreciation for a player making a massive splash in senior football for the first time, much like Santos here.

Now, with more and more attention on Santos' progress, he has posted online. "Let’s continue working hard to seek evolution, we will always remain together! [fingers crossed and blue and white circle emojis] " he wrote on Instagram.

Chelsea will now be keeping a keen eye on Santos even more than before as he lights up in Europe. The club are hopeful of him being able to have a bright future at Stamford Bridge even after initially struggling whilst away at Nottingham Forest last season.