Thomas Tuchel believes Chelsea need to sign a striker amid speculation that a move for Romelu Lukaku is close to being done.
Lukaku has asked Inter Milan to agree to a deal with Chelsea, who offered £85m plus Marcos Alonso for the striker. But It may take another £10m for a deal to be done.
Inter are still owing Manchester United for Lukaku, which may speed up a deal, especially now the player has made it clear he wants to leave.
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Speaking to the press after Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Spurs in a pre-season friendly, Tuchel opened up on the deal.
The German coach said: “I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad. He’s a fantastic player but he’s an Inter player and I will not talk about him in this situation.”
“You can imagine a lot of players want to come and join but we will not talk about that.”
Tuchel added: “With the exit of Olivier Giroud, we could use a player who plays with their back to goal and it means we can add this direct style of play.
“It’s the sort of profile we don’t have in the squad that can be useful. But not for any cost and not panic. Whatever happens, we will be competitive and we have trust in our guys. We have young players in the offensive part of the game that we demand improve. We are relaxed and aware of our situation at the same time.”
Tuchel even suggested Alonso would not be offered to Inter as a makeweight. He said: “The board isn’t offering players, that’s not how it works.
“We talk to the board about players, have our own opinions, and in the end we target players who in our opinion could make our squad strong, which is quite a challenge.
“There are some players of which we think they can be a good target and improvement in our squad. I will not comment on names as I don’t like it when other coaches speak about my players. So hopefully you understand that.”
