Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has admitted that the Chelsea striker curse may be real after both Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner failed to kick on in terms of their development last season – with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang links picking up the pace.
Fernando Torres, Alvaro Morata, Matija Kezman, Andriy Shevchenko; the list goes on.
Many fail to make the grade at Stamford Bridge, with Diego Costa and Didier Drogba being the two that have flown since the Roman Abramovich era started almost 20 years ago.
Tuchel bought Lukaku from Inter Milan last season after the Belgian starred in Serie A in a bid to challenge for the Premier League title, although he only scored five goals in the league and failed to impress at Stamford Bridge.
And with the club loaning him out as a result of his poor form, Tuchel believes there may genuinely be a striker curse in west London.
“That‘s a very good question and I struggle to give a clear answer. But we need to make sure this is not a self-fulfilling prophecy that we create for ourselves,” Tuchel said via the Daily Star.
“I was ready to improve the situation with Romelu. I was ready to give it new thoughts, new energy. But it wasn’t to be. We had a difficult, disappointing year in this relationship with Romelu.
“We expected more, he expected more and I expected more of myself. Okay, we go again. But, still, we shouldn’t create our own self-fulfilling prophecy that the next striker will not succeed.
“And, of course, that’s on me to create an environment and a team that creates enough chances for a striker to finally have the last touch, and score!”
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