Chelsea may be about to hurt Thomas Tuchel as Todd Boehly pursue and ‘focused’ on signing £77m Croatia’s World Cup star
Owner of Chelsea Todd Boehly is prepared to approve a £77 million bid for Croatian World Cup player Josko Gvardiol, adding insult to injury for their former coach Thomas Tuchel. The highly regarded defender is set to join the Blues next summer if the Blues make a new offer, according to reports.
After closely following Gvardiol’s development in the Bundesliga, it is said that Tuchel was a major fan and gave the club’s new owners the order to try to recruit him during the summer transfer window. Even though Gvardiol had a personal call from the German head coach persuading him to come, the club was unable to reach an agreement with the Bundesliga team.
At the time, the west London team still required a new center back due to the departures of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen despite having already recruited Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly for a combined £104 million earlier in the summer. Leipzig, however, was not interested in offloading the 20-year-old and even rejected a £77 million offer on the final day of the transfer window.
His performances for Croatia have only served to highlight Chelsea’s reluctance to close the deal, and after some outstanding performances in Qatar, it is also believed that Manchester City and Real Madrid are keeping an eye on his development.
Nevertheless, it appears Boehly is prepared to make another offer for Gvardiol despite the fact that his contract does not have a release clause, according to German writer Florian Plettenberg.
Boehly managed Chelsea’s record-breaking £272 million summer transfer spending before making the harsh choice to fire Tuchel one week after the market ended. He left the club the day after a 1-0 Champions League loss to Dinamo Zagreb, though he later admitted there had been a difference of opinion over the club’s long-term goals.
Just a few days later, the American billionaire replaced the Champions League winner with Graham Potter, and Tuchel later acknowledged he was disappointed by his departure since he wanted to stay in the position.
Tuchel, who warned in preseason that he needed more reinforcements following a crushing loss to Arsenal and that the failure to recruit Gvardiol could have cost him his job, will be more disappointed by the news of their renewed pursuit of the player.
“The past week supports my assertion. Without a doubt, I would rather be wrong. I tried everything to disprove my own assumptions, but right now I believe I was correct,” he declared in July.
“I look back at the previous season and the games and seasons where we struggled, and then we got sanctioned, players left us, and some players are trying to leave us, and this is where it is now,” the player said.
So, a great number of high-caliber players were urgently sought after. We have two excellent players, but we lack this level of competition. Unfortunately, it was visible today.
Although it is unclear when Chelsea would be able to reach an agreement with Leipzig, things have improved during discussions about forward Christopher Nkunku, who is anticipated to sign a £60 million transfer deal at the end of the current campaign. Tuchel, who is currently without a team, will undoubtedly feel bad about not being able to sign Gvardiol.