MY ACCOUNT
Thomas Tuchel suggested Armando Broja will remain a Chelsea player amid transfer speculation, while the Blues head coach still wants a “couple more” arrivals at Stamford Bridge.
West Ham, Everton and Newcastle United are reportedly interested in Broja, who scored six goals in 32 Premier League appearances on loan at Southampton last season.
With Romelu Lukaku loaned back to Inter, the future of Timo Werner somewhat uncertain and Kai Havertz arguably more suited to a deeper role, the 2022-23 campaign could be a breakthrough one for Broja at Chelsea.
While Tuchel’s preference seems to remain with Havertz as a false nine, the Blues boss outlined his expectations that Broja will stay with his side for the upcoming campaign.
“I don’t expect him to leave,” Tuchel told a news conference. “We are aware of interest and offers, which just tells us there is a lot of potential, and the owners and me will take this decision together in the end, also with the player.
“Right now when he arrived, it’s clear he’s trying to impress and is just trying to become a Chelsea player as soon as possible.
“After his loan at Southampton, the situation was very clear for him to make the next step, to show his improvement and make an impression in pre-season.
“Unfortunately he injured himself and of course there is a lot of noise going on because there are offers and interest in him. Let’s see how this goes but I’m pretty calm about it because we know the situation and we have a contract.”
Tuchel has already brought in the experienced Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly from Manchester City and Napoli respectively, but lost Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Lukaku.
The Chelsea coach previously stated his top target was Sterling, who scored 17 goals in all competitions for City last season, a tally bettered by only Riyad Mahrez (24) and Kevin De Bruyne (19).
But Tuchel acknowledged he would now like a couple more signings, with Sevilla centre-back Jules Kounde among those linked with the Premier League side.
“I have a figure and I think we need a couple more players in to improve the squad,” he added. “We were third last season and there was a gap between us, Manchester City and Liverpool.
“In general if you want to fight, even for the same position, you need to improve. You can never stand still because if you stand still then other teams will overtake you.
“Given the situation that we even lost players, it’s common sense for me that we need to bring new quality to the team to maintain our level.
“It’s always the dream of every manager that you find players in the same league and who can adapt maybe quicker than other players, but it’s also a very individual process.
“Of course we see that Raheem knows many players from the national team and he is very familiar with the habits of English clubs so this is very nice to see.
“For Kalidou, it’s a big help that we have some French guys, that we have Edou [Mendy] his team-mate in the national team and of course Jorginho who is a big help from Napoli to make this process faster.
“Both of them should be huge players for us and that’s why we need to speed things up.”
