Chelsea manager has defended and praised Chelsea acting chairman Todd Boehly over Gary Neville’s claims that the American Business is panicking in the transfer market and acting like he is playing a football manager.
Gary Neville this week on the overlap podcast when commenting on Chelsea transfer business in the summer window aimed a jab at Todd Boehly. The former Manchester United skipper seems to suggest that Todd Boehly does not know what he is doing and panicking about his signing of players.
However, Thomas Tuchel disagrees with Gary and rather praises Todd Boehly after the signing of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, and Carney Chukwuemeka.
Despite all these signings, Chelsea also missed out on a couple of targets to Barcelona like Jules Kounde, Raphinha, and Robert Lewandowski.
What was Thomas Tuchel’s reply to Gary Neville?
The 48-year-old said when asked about Chelsea’s transfer strategy and the criticism by Gary Neville: “(Gary Neville said) panicking? No. I would describe it as super hard-working, learning new on the job so it is pretty much going on.
“New ownership, stepping into the transfer market is one of the toughest things you can do. I have nothing but the biggest respect and compliments for both Todd and Behdad.
“I don’t know when they sleep, maybe they never sleep. We have a very honest, open, direct line of communication. The transfers so far speak for themselves. We have a delay, of course.
“ Nobody is guilty, it’s because of the sanctions. This led to the loss of key players but like I said both of the owners involved in the daily business do fantastic jobs so far. The transfer market speaks for itself.”
Thomas Tuchel also passed his verdicts on Arsenal, Tottenham, and Manchester United transfer business and their pre-season performance.
The German tactician added: “I think that Tottenham and Arsenal showed in pre-season and transfer market, and Man United, what their ambition is. They have a clear target to catch us and get closer to the top two teams.
“ This is for me very clear. We are in the middle of it. It helps nothing if we break our heads over the other teams. We need to be ready for Saturday and we will be ready. We will take advantage of the start of the season where we have a full week to prepare. This is where the focus is. Step by step it seems we have a very competitive team.
“ I am very happy with the players who came and made our squad stronger and with what they bring to this team. This is where the focus is. The players came late, we are in a bit of a delay, need to adapt, and still, players to come in. It is a kind of disadvantage but for Saturday we have the guys we have. We rely on them and will push them to the limit. We can be ready to win a tough match in Everton.”
Chelsea is also in talks with Leicester City to sign their center-back Wesley Fofana. Leicester City rejected Chelsea’s initial £60 million bid.
