Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BLUES’ TUCHEL GETS NEEDLED
Stamford Bridge. Tuchel has also turned his attentions to Sevilla’s France centre-back Jules Kounde (inset, above), with Nathan Ake staying at Manchester City.
And Tuchel is continuing to pursue Paris Saint-Germain’s Presnel Kimpembe to complete his defensive options for the new season.
Asked about Kante’s pre-season programme, he added: “He is preparing himself with Ruben. We cannot force them [to take the vaccine]. It is at the moment a very normal decision to get vaccinated.
“Both players took the decision not to – we need to follow the rules.
“They cannot join us, they know about the consequences. We don’t like it, of course, not.
“We would love to have them here and it’s not an ideal solution, far from it. But once the situation is like this, you need to come up with a solution.
“So they have their coaches there. They train with the Under-23s, but it will not compensate. It will not be the same.”
Tuchel has turned the setback of losing Kante into a positive, with the France midfielder handed his own personal programme to prevent a repeat of last season’s injury-plagued campaign.
“For N’Golo, it is maybe not even the worst thing to do,” he added.
“We can give him a very individual load. I don’t think he needs a long time to adapt to our game because N’Golo is N’Golo and everybody is aware that he is a key player.”
Kante
(inset, below) and Italy midfielder Jorginho have just a year left on their contracts.
Tuchel admitted talks are under way with new owner Todd Boelhy to ensure both do not leave for free after defenders Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen walked away for nothing this summer.
“Everybody is aware of the situation, not only with N’Golo, but also Jorginho,” added Tuchel.
“We knew about the situation with Andreas and Toni and we don’t want this, so we are on it to solve it in the best interests of the club.”