Thomas Tuchel ready for ‘open and honest’ talks with Todd Boehly over Chelsea transfer plans
The Blues could lose several key players in the summer
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Your support makes all the difference.Thomas Tuchel expects “open and honest” conversations with Chelsea’s incoming owner Todd Boehly.
The Blues’ German coach has admitted Chelsea face a summer of “rebuilding” the Stamford Bridge squad, as opposed to strengthening the ranks.
Toni Rudiger is poised to join Real Madrid this summer, with Andreas Christensen understood to be making the Barcelona switch.
Cesar Azpilicueta has triggered an appearance-related extra year on his contract, but Barcelona continue to push for a deal to sign the Blues captain.
The Catalan giants are also understood to hold strong interest in Marcos Alonso too, and the potential departure of four key defenders would require significant arrivals as replacements.
US magnate Boehly was on hand at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night as Chelsea were left frustrated by a 1-1 draw with Leicester, but still all-but tied down a third-place Premier League finish.
Boehly is yet to see Chelsea win in person, with the Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner’s £4.25billion takeover inching ever closer to completion.
Tuchel can expect to sit down with Boehly and plot the summer’s strategy as and when the Eldridge Industries co-founder’s ownership is rubber-stamped.
And the Chelsea manager admitted he will be as straight-talking as ever when mapping out the Blues’ future.
When told that Boehly is yet to see Chelsea win despite several recent visits to watch the Blues, Tuchel joked: “Was he here again? Well that’s a clear sign. He will watch on ESPN in Los Angeles next season! It is clear already, if it is like this it is clear.”
Asked if what Boehly has watched on his London visits would strengthen Tuchel’s arguments for squad investment, the Blues manager continued: “Yes but I don’t know. We will be very open and honest.
“He will get my point of view if he wants to have it. Of course we lose key players and we struggle lately to win our home games.
“He was at the (FA Cup) final in Wembley. Maybe when the deal is done and he is our owner he is the lucky charm that we need. We give him some credit.”
Left wing-back Alonso switched off to allow Timothy Castagne to set Leicester en route to an early lead on Thursday, with James Maddison rifling home from 18 yards.
Alonso delivered a finely-struck volley as redemption before half-time however, connecting sublimely with Reece James’ defence-splitting lofted, diagonal ball.
Chelsea’s lack of fluency and finishing up front has stymied their campaign, but the Blues have still effectively nailed down that third-place finish.
Tuchel admitted, however, that despite improvements in consistency that Chelsea must sharpen up their creativity and chance conversion next term.
“It’s the story of the season: we need an assist from a wing-back and a goal from a wing-back,” said Tuchel. “You can see the numbers from our offensive players and the numbers of the players in front of us.
“But still we have now secured third place. We have been the whole season in the top three, and we have in mind where we come from in the last season.
“In the last half season we came from ninth place I guess, and we secured fourth place with the help of Tottenham in the last game of the season.
“And now we took ourselves, we fought against Arsenal and Tottenham, who played six weeks in one competition and we’re pretty much the opposite.
“So yeah we had some obstacles to overcome and some circumstances around the club which were not easy. Full credit to the team, and it is a huge step in consistency for us.
“Maybe it does not feel 100 per cent like this because the gap is so big to the top two teams. So, OK we have stuff to do, stuff to improve, we are the first ones to admit that, and from here we go.”