Strasbourg and Liam Rosenior Deserve Better Than Amougou and Kendry Páez
Dear BlueCo Leaders,
It’s now July 2025, and Strasbourg are back in Europe, something the fans have dreamt of for years. The Conference League play-off is just around the corner, and preseason preparation begins in a matter of days — Monday, 7 July, to be exact. While excitement should be building, there’s an uncomfortable truth looming: the current squad is not ready, and the support that was promised to Liam Rosenior and Racing fans hasn’t materialised.
We need to talk about the direction this project is taking, because what’s happening now doesn’t align with the promises made, nor with the ambitions this club rightly holds.
Here’s a full list of the players currently expected to be at Rosenior’s disposal for 2025/26:
Notice something? A large number of “mid players” as well as fewer, and ready-to-leave “club-trained players”. That matters a great deal when you’re preparing for Europe.
UEFA regulations clearly state: clubs must submit a 25-man List A (Professional squad), including 8 locally trained players — 4 trained by the club, 4 by the national association. If the local training quota isn’t met, the overall squad size will be reduced. In Strasbourg’s case, unless something changes immediately, they are likely to register 21 professional players for the European squad list.
And out of those 21, two are set to be Mathis Amougou (19) and Kendry Páez (18); both incredibly talented, but haven’t played a genuine competitive match in over 4-5 months. Even more baffling is the rumour that Mike Penders (20) might be added to the mix on loan. That would make three U20 players occupying spots in a senior European squad (since they are not club-trained) in a season where Strasbourg are competing in Ligue 1, Coupe de France, and the Conference League.
Let’s be clear, no one is demanding €40–80million signings like Cole Palmer or Enzo Fernández. What Strasbourg supporters and, indeed, Rosenior himself are hoping for are affordable, first-team-ready reinforcements. Players with real experience who can contribute now, just as Andrey Santos, Habib Diarra, Dorde Petrovic, Guela Doué, Diego Moreira, and Dilane Bakwa did last season.
Some Strasbourg faithful have been incredibly patient, and they welcomed BlueCo with cautious optimism and bought into the vision. Here’s what they were told at the end of the season:
“Any player that leaves will be replaced with someone better.”
“We want Strasbourg to be in European competitions every season.”
Currently, neither of these promises is being fulfilled. The reality is drifting further and further away from those ambitions. Andrey Santos, Mamadou Sarr, Habib Diarra, and Djordje Petrović have all departed. These were crucial players to the team’s success last season. Yet, rather than replacing them with equal or improved quality, the plan appears to be filling their boots with more teenagers.
This squad doesn’t need another wave of experiments. It needs stability. Liam Rosenior, who already pulled off miracles last season with the youngest team in Europe’s top five leagues, deserves the tools to build, not start from scratch again.
Liam Rosenior isn’t a development coach. He’s a proper manager, trying to forge a competitive identity for a proud club in one of Europe’s most difficult leagues. But the current approach gives the impression that he’s being treated like a glorified academy tutor. If developing Chelsea’s youth was the plan, he should’ve been offered the role at the Cobham Training Centre, not in the Strasbourg first team.
It’s worth asking: Would Chelsea allow Enzo Maresca to compete in the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League with a squad of 18- and 19-year-olds? Of course not. Then why should that be expected of Rosenior? Strasbourg’s project should not be a second-tier version of Chelsea’s academy strategy. It should stand on its own: ambitious, competitive, and properly resourced.
Preseason preparation starts next week. The Conference League play-off is just a few weeks away. This team cannot afford to be scrambling for signings at the last minute — not in a season where European qualification must be backed up, not just hoped for.
Rosenior’s job is to compete, and with the youngest squad in Europe’s top five leagues last season, he already overachieved. Replicating that with an even younger and less experienced group isn’t just unrealistic, it’s setting him up to fail. And that would be a disservice to a talented manager and a historic French club.
If BlueCo truly believes in Liam Rosenior and the Racing Strasbourg project, then now is the time to show it. Not with slogans. Not with promises. But with real reinforcements, the kind this squad desperately needs to navigate a long, competitive season across three competitions.
With sincerity and urgency,
BlueCo Xtra Editor
Fan. Analyst. Advocate.
A bit early to be complaining here. The window is open all of 1 day.