Chelsea will seemingly make Gessime Yassine the latest player to arrive from BlueCo sister club Strasbourg.

The Blues have used their Ligue 1 affiliate as a farm team since the takeover in 2023, with youngsters and players deemed surplus to requirements sent to Alsace, while talented stars from the French club have moved to Stamford Bridge.

This summer alone, seven players were traded between the two BlueCo sides, with Valentin Barco and Emmanuel Emegha joining Chelsea. Neither has featured prominently so far. In fact, the latter hasn't played at all.

It's questionable whether the investment has been worth it. BlueCo have propped up Strasbourg with hitherto unseen funds, but as with Chelsea, consistent success has been found wanting, while the player development aspect also has yet to really bear fruit.

To be sure, the relationship has enabled both clubs to make major sales. Strasbourg have cashed in on stars they wouldn't have been able to sign without BlueCo, while Chelsea sold Andrey Santos because of his exploits in France rather than the few minutes he accrued in England.

However, the three signings made by Chelsea from Strasbourg - Emegha, Barco and Mamadou Sarr - have had next to no impact despite costing a combined €79m.

Chelsea to sign Yassine?

Nevertheless, the strategy won't change anytime soon. On the contrary, Chelsea appear to have already earmarked their next signing from Strasbourg: winger Gessime Yassine.

The 20-year-old was signed from second-tier side Dunkerque in January and is starting to become influential after initially taking a while to find his feet, which is not unusual for a mid-season signing.

He bagged a brace against RC Lens in August - his first goals for the club - and followed that up with an assist against Troyes. Despite his youth, Yassine already has nine senior caps for Morocco to his name.

And according to long-time former Chelsea goalkeeper coach Christophe Lollichon, who is now at Dunkerque, the French-born winger is primed to join the Blues. Lollichon claimed in passing that Yassine has "practically" been signed by Chelsea during an interview with Ouest-France.

"We’re meticulous about discovering talent and giving them the opportunity to express themselves," he explained while discussing Dunkerque's youth development. "We don’t know how far they’ll go.

"Today, Gessime Yassine plays for Strasbourg, but he’s practically at Chelsea, Enzo Bardeli is at Levante, Alec Georgen, a brilliant player who came through PSG, is at Lorient."

In the interview, Lollichon also asserted that former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich once sought information about Nantes and expressed an interest in turning them into a feeder club for his Premier League side.

That plan didn't evolve into anything concrete, ostensibly because Abramovich deemed the Breton club "too big for what we want to do." BlueCo evidently had no such concerns when they bought Strasbourg.