Chelsea have signed Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella and Carney Chukwuemeka this summer as they aim to replace the departures of Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Antonio Rudiger. However, whilst boss Thomas Tuchel is happy with his incomings, the German has admitted he gave an ‘unrealistic’ list of signings to new owner Todd Boehly.
Tuchel signed Romelu Lukaku under the guidance of Roman Abramovich last summer, although that transfer did not work out with the Belgian scoring just five league goals before being sent back to Inter Milan on loan.
With Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK government back in March over the Ukraine-Russia conflict, new owner Boehly has come in and given a clean slate of £200m to spend as per previous reports.
With spending set to surpass any deal made by Abramovich in a single window, the Blues are in good shape to make another case for the top four after injuries gave them a reason to worry last year.
But Tuchel has claimed that he asked Boehly for unachievable, ‘fantasy football’ signings in a bid to win the league – although not all of them have come to fruition.
“I don’t want to limit our ambitions artificially in August and I don’t want to put pressure on us by putting out any number that we want to reach. Every team fights for the top four in this league and if in March and April you’re in the race, you’re in the race,” Tuchel told the Daily Mail.
“I gave Todd a list and it would have been possible to fight straight for the title with those signings. But that was a pretty unrealistic list! We can play fantasy football.
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“In the end we need to pay for it, we need to convince players and other clubs to give us their very best players, it’s simply not happening. I’m super happy with what we succeeded with so far. They’re fantastic signings.
“If it’s not finished, we try to bring further quality and with further quality, of course, the ambition level rises.”
Chelsea carry on their hopes for the top four with a home tie against rivals Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.