Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel addressed the futures of academy products Armando Broja and Billy Gilmour, after the pair left the Blues’ training camp in the United States.
Chelsea are facing another academy exodus this summer with graduates Broja, Gilmour, Levi Colwill, and others linked with an exit. Tuchel, in a recent media appearance during the Blues’ pre-season tour of the USA, did little to ease the fans’ concerns, as he claimed that some of the Chelsea kids were sent back home to keep the training group compact.
“I would have loved to have had everybody here because Tino [Anjorin], Harvey [Vale], and Billy had trained at a very high level and it would also have been nice to see them in some matches,”
he was quoted as saying by chelseafc.com.
“But in the end, we had to take the decision to keep the quality high in training so we decided for 24 players as a maximum and that’s why we went a bit smaller”.
However, Tuchel did play down some of the rumours linking striker Broja with an exit. A report in The Athletic on Monday suggested that the 20-year-old Albanian was closing in on a move to West Ham. The Hammers, it said, were prepared to pay 30 million pounds to sign the youngster, with whom they had already struck an agreement regarding personal terms.
Nonetheless, the Chelsea head coach maintained his stance that Broja had to return home to receive treatment for an injury he had sustained while training with the group.
“Armando had to travel home. He had a little accident in training. He twisted his ankle and he needs further examinations and treatments in London.”
the German said.
Chelsea have been busy of late in the transfer market. After shipping Romelu Lukaku back to Inter Milan on a season-long loan deal, the club brought in Raheem Sterling from Manchester City in a deal worth 47.5 million pounds. Days later, they signed long-term target Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli in a similarly expensive package on a four-year contract.
