Toulouse pulls off an unusual summer: three Premier sales

Toulouse has notched up a rare stat: as L’Équipe reports, the club is among the few from Europe’s top five leagues (excluding English teams) to sell three players to the Premier League this summer.

The run ended this Friday with the departure of Yann Gboho. L’Équipe says the move is €12m + €3m in bonuses, heading to Coventry, and it serves to close Toulouse’s active transfer window.

Three Premier exits

The article also stresses that this kind of Premier-to-Ligue 1 traffic is uncommon for clubs in France.

The Strasbourg angle

L’Équipe compares this with Strasbourg, singled out as the only side that reportedly matches or betters Toulouse’s level of Premier activity this summer, though the situation is “a bit special”. The reason, according to the paper, is Strasbourg’s close ties with Chelsea, which share the same majority shareholder through BlueCo. L’Équipe points to the sale of Valentin Barco to Chelsea for €40m, alongside other transfers and the “many loan deals” between the two clubs, including the earlier moves of Julio Enciso and Abdoul Ouattara to Ipswich Town.

Finally, L’Équipe frames the wider picture with the Premier League’s spending spree: €4 billion reportedly spent across the window.