homas Tuchel has insisted Chelsea didn’t intentionally go away the No9 shirt free with a future new signing in thoughts.
Chelsea’s No9 stays vacant after Romelu Lukaku‘s return to Inter Milan on mortgage, and Tuchel mentioned not one of the Blues’ present stars needed to take the shirt.
The Stamford Bridge membership will proceed to take a look at including a striker to their ranks this summer time, with Barcelona’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang understood to stay in consideration.
The final six Chelsea stars to put on the 9 shirt have struggled for an enduring influence in west London, leaving Tuchel to joke that the Blues’ central hanging quantity nonetheless harbours unhealthy luck.
“It is cursed, it is cursed, folks inform me it is cursed!” joked Tuchel. “It isn’t the case that we go away it open for tactical causes, or for some gamers within the pipeline that are available in and naturally take it.
Chelsea’s No9 shirt has remained vacant since Romelu Lukaku rejoined Inter Milan on mortgage
/ Chelsea FC by way of Getty Photos“There was not a giant demand for quantity 9, when like gamers typically need to change numbers. However, surprisingly, no person desires to the touch it.
“Everyone who’s longer than me within the membership tells me ‘ah, you understand, like he had the 9 and he didn’t rating and he had the 9 and did additionally not rating’. So now we have now a second the place no person desires to the touch the quantity 9.”
Tammy Abraham insisted he had no qualms taking up the No9 problem when sporting the squad quantity for 2 years at Chelsea, earlier than heading off to Serie A to impress with Roma.
Abraham nonetheless left Chelsea with unfinished enterprise, nevertheless, after which Lukaku’s solitary marketing campaign again at Stamford Bridge ended sourly.
Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao, Alvaro Morata and Gonzalo Higuain have all tried and failed for an enduring impression as Chelsea’s No9.
Tuchel stays relaxed sufficient concerning the state of affairs to have joked brazenly about it although, and the Blues might but recruit a central striker who would naturally take the shirt.
Chelsea have pushed onerous for a transformative summer time below new house owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, with Marc Cucurella the most recent high-profile and big-money recruit.
Tuchel nonetheless believes the Blues are in transition however vowed to not restrict his workforce’s potential for the brand new marketing campaign.
“I feel we is not going to have our highest stage we are able to attain all through the entire season,” mentioned Tuchel.
“I feel that is regular for everyone however, for us, it is completely regular and we shouldn’t be too involved as a result of it has been turbulent not solely because the new house owners are in but in addition how they got here in and the state of affairs earlier than.
“So we didn’t have the platform to have all the pieces mounted, go on vacation and have the 5 weeks preparation to know who’s in our squad and the way can we practice.
First footage as Cucurella trains with Chelsea
“There was fixed altering throughout the squad and throughout the course of. I feel step one is to confess it, be fantastic with it and to not be wanting greater than there could possibly be. That is the state of affairs.
“We tried to refocus fully this week on Everton and that is the fitting strategy as a result of I felt the workforce refocus, it is calmed down all people and I really feel we’re able to go to Everton for the win.
“We are going to see if I am proper. Then we’ll analyse it after which put together for Tottenham in the identical method and I am satisfied by doing this we’ll discover our form, we’ll discover our stage that we demand of ourselves and it is like I mentioned, I do not need to decrease our expectations earlier than the season however on the similar time I do not need to put an excessive amount of stress on ourselves.”
