Thomas Tuchel demands new Chelsea owners to keep two Chelsea individuals amid transfer woes
As Chelsea listened to the final pitches of the billionaires vying to acquire the club, Tuchel pleaded with whoever won to keep Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech.
Tuchel has purposefully avoided discussions with the three groups, led by Todd Boehly, Stephen Pagliuca, and Sir Martin Broughton, who are now waiting to learn out which of them has won the race to buy Chelsea following a last round of pitches at Stamford Bridge.
But it is apparent that one of Tuchel’s wishes as he faces a summer in which he admits Chelsea has been harmed by the takeover and sanctions imposed on the club is that he continues to collaborate with director Granovskaia and technical and performance advisor Cech.
Tuchel did not name Granovskaia or Cech, but the three have a close relationship, and it did not take much reading between the lines to deduce that his overarching desire would be for the system around him to remain unchanged.
“As you know, I was so happy with the structure that the club provides and the mentality Chelsea provides,” said Tuchel. “That was, for me, always the foundation to strongly believe and genuinely believe ‘OK, we will push and keep on pushing’.
“With this now being questioned it’s getting more demanding, not difficult because I don’t know what’s coming so let’s see. But the key thing for me is that we keep the mentality in the building at least and in the club, the competitive mentality that was installed over more than a decade. It’s a bit concerning and, hopefully, we can find our way through it.”
Chelsea are well aware that they will need to replace defenders Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who will both leave on free transfers at the end of the season, but they are unable to approach player representatives as their rivals are.
Tuchel joked that the surgery his team will need this summer would be “cosmetic,” rather than the open heart surgery that Ralf Rangnick claims Manchester United, Chelsea’s opponents on Thursday night, require.
But the head coach added: “I would be less concerned if we had the same ownership, if we could rely on our structure. It can be complex enough if you lose a player like Toni and maybe lose another player like Andreas with that kind of quality, and both of them for free.
“It can be demanding enough even if everything else stays in place. So with this in question it can be a very, very demanding summer, but I just want to be positive about it and stick to the things we can influence.”
Chelsea are expected to rekindle their interest in Sevilla defender Jules Kounde, whom they attempted to acquire last summer, and are among several clubs interested in Villarreal’s Pau Torres.
But while their rivals can start to initiate talks, Chelsea must wait for a takeover to be fully completed and Tuchel admitted that he does not expect a new owner to immediately break the bank in the transfer market.
“(Normally) we would have some targets and we would have for sure contacted some players and found out about their situations,” said Tuchel. “Of course, now our hands are tied. We can still have the talks inside the building, but we cannot act.
“The situation is not ideal. It would be challenging enough with a stable situation. We don’t have that and we try to show our commitment, our passion for it and this is maybe very important for me to give this message: I’m committed, I’m looking forward to it and I’m passionate about it.
“And as soon as we can act, we will try to act and turn things around and make it from a disadvantage, maybe an advantage. However, I don’t have the solution right now but we will try to stay positive about it.
“I also think it is not possible that a new owner comes in and hands over and says ‘here go wild, here is £250million go and spend it’. There is still faith in the people who take care of it from our side and we try to be prepared behind the scenes so that if we get a green light to act that we are ready and share our views on the team.”
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Thomas Tuchel demands new Chelsea owners to keep two Chelsea individuals amid transfer woes
