Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has admitted he faces a tough challenge to revitilise his defense in the summer.
The Blues will lose Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who are set to join Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, while talks are ongoing to find a solution for Cezar Azpilicueta’s future.
There are question marks over Marcos Alonso as well, with Barcelona leading the race to sign him up as he entered his last year with the club.
The club’s situation is compounded by the current UK Government sanctions limiting their ability to make concrete decisions ahead of the summer window or agree new contracts with existing players.
“It’s a very big task. We tried to replace with Erling Haaland but he is now gone!” he joked about the current situation.
“Normally in this time of the season you are contacting players, you find out and get a feeling, you meet and have discussions, dialogue, and feedback.
“You know who’s committed, you find your targets or you sign your own players and go from there to the next step. Right now we have an idea but unfortunately, the guys don’t know that we have this idea, nor do the clubs.
“We also have to find out what the ideas of the new owners are, which is a key point and from there we go,”
The current situation leaves Tuchel with only Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah as the only regular members of the defensive unit.
The club has been linked with French stalwart Jules Kounde, who came close to joining last summer only for the deal to break down.
