Will Chelsea sign any more attackers to help Raheem Sterling transform an attack that came under heavy scrutiny after their pre-season defeat to Arsenal?
As well as making an ‘urgent appeal’ for more new quality signings with less than two weeks to go until the Premier League season opener at Everton, manager Thomas Tuchel’s worries at Chelsea’s transfer business were there for all to see at the Camping World Stadium. “For sure. If you look at the first half, it was even hard to escape our half in a productive way and to play in the opponent’s half in a positive way and create chances – we had one chance with a shot [that hit the post],” he said on the attacking situation in his post-match press conference.
“But the amount of dangerous situations, the amount of one against ones, the amount of accelerations in the second half, where we dominated the game and were the better team in the first 22 minutes, but with their first action they score and we didn’t have too many dangerous situations [after that]. Listen, it’s the same players, so why should anything change? We will see hopefully development but at the moment, we have the same issues because we have the same players.”
Tuchel has already rejected Ronaldo once but super agent Jorge Mendes is set to offer him once again to the west Londoners before the September deadline passes by. There is hope that a U-turn may be performed after his latest Man United talks reiterated the urge for the Portuguese to move elsewhere for Champions League football.
Fabrizio Romano said: “We know they have been offered a chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s something that Jorge Mendes discussed with Chelsea but Thomas Tuchel said no 10-15 days ago.
“He didn’t want to proceed on this opportunity, so I’m sure that Mendes will insist again with Chelsea, Bayern and Atletico Madrid until the end of the market but at the moment, it is still like this.”
Who else could the Blues move for if the 37-year-old wasn’t be given a second link? Well, Spurs striker Harry Kane is someone of ‘interest’ to Tuchel but as the German has been quoted saying in the past, that type of scenario is a dream one only and not realistic in the slightest.
This is a sentiment echoed by Italian transfer guru Romano who admitted that he hasn’t been aware of any ‘contact’ made between Chelsea and the 28-year-old’s representatives with the Daniel Levy stumbling block something the Blues are very much aware of.
“I’m not aware of any contact between Chelsea and Harry Kane. Chelsea understand that Kane is untouchable, and Daniel Levy wouldn’t sell to a Premier League rival,” Romano explained via CaughtOffside.
“In my opinion, Chelsea should have already taken action on a new striker as it’s becoming difficult to find a top-level player in this position.
“Erling Haaland would have been the ideal solution, but it was impossible to work on that deal due to the sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich at the time.”
football.london understands that after last summer when Kane pushed for a move to Manchester City, the striker is happy at Tottenham and open to talks over a new deal, with his current contract set to expire in 2024. An offer is expected to arrive from the club in due course.
