Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel refused to comment on the possibility of signing Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana.
And press reports had previously indicated that Chelsea was willing to pay 80 million pounds to contract with Fofana, to compensate for the departure of Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger, despite the arrival of Senegalese Kalidou Coulibaly.
“I will not comment. No matter how good your question is, I will not comment,” Tuchel said about this deal in a press conference today, Friday, before facing Tottenham next Sunday in the second round of the Premier League.
“We can take advantage of another defender. If you look at the numbers and we play with a three in the back you will see a difference, I admit, we can play with Cesar Azpilicueta, who is more full-back than a central defender, and the same for Marc Cucurella as well. Both cannot play as central defenders, so We can use another player in this position.”
Tuchel also commented on his relationship with Barcelona striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who previously played under his supervision at Borussia Dortmund, in light of the negotiations between the player and Chelsea.
“I enjoyed working with him a lot, it was a pleasure,” said the German coach. “It has nothing to do with the situation now, but Oba remains a close player.”
“We had a very close relationship. Always when we played him here against Arsenal, there was always that close bond right away.”
And whether he had concerns about Aubameyang’s bad influence, as his former Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta felt, “I don’t need to worry because I haven’t faced any of this. It has nothing to do with the situation at Arsenal, which I will not comment on either out of respect.”
“I don’t have to comment, I don’t know what happened. In Dortmund, there was no problem at all.”
Talking about the departure of technical director and former goalkeeper Petr Cech, Tuchel said, “We miss him a lot and he knows it, I’ve seen him in recent days. I know a lot of people miss him very much. He was here every day at the training center and lived with us in every situation, he knows what it takes. It’s to be a big rival like Chelsea.”
He added, “It was impressive, he helped me a lot, he gave huge support. I’ve never experienced that kind of honesty, maybe that’s his main quality. In all his efforts he was very humble and honest. It was a great relationship but we have to respect his decision. Maybe now we need to settle things.”
On the best position for Raheem Sterling, he replied, “I think he should play in the last line or between the lines. He was very good at training in this role as the number 9 striker, falling in the half spaces.”
He added, “He can play from the wing, of course, he is used to playing there. He was very dangerous, had an offside goal and a great chance when he played as the number 9 striker (against Everton) and I liked it a lot.”
And Tuchel added, “We are still at the beginning, he came late to the pre-season preparations. The most obvious thing is his physical and mental quality, regardless of his position.”
Tuchel confirmed that his player Marcos Alonso is close to moving to Barcelona, saying, “He is not in training at the moment, and he is trying to end his transfer, so he will not be available to face Tottenham.”
And he concluded, “The same for the injured Kovacic, he has problems with his knee, we decided to take a step back and increase the treatment time to reduce the tension from training to have a normal reaction before we start again.”
