Thomas Tuchel has declined to respond to rumors that Chelsea is interested in signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Barcelona striker.
After Romelu Lukaku left the Blues on loan earlier this summer, a number of center forwards have been mentioned in connection with the club.
One of the options was Robert Lewandowski, but the Poland international ultimately moved from Bayern Munich to Barcelona.
The inclusion of the productive Lewandowski could limit the playing time of former Arsenal attacker Aubameyang.
Aubameyang only recently left the Gunners to join Barca, according to rumours, but Chelsea is reportedly interested in signing him.
The 33-year-old scored a lot of goals for the Bundesliga team while working under Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund.
Tuchel evaded a question about Aubameyang during a press conference on Friday, though he did jokingly say he would welcome the 79 goals the striker scored for him at Dortmund.
The Blues manager responded, “I would be interested in the 79 goals actually,” when asked about the Aubameyang rumors and the player’s 79 goals scored while playing for him in Germany (laughs).
We won’t add any further commentary.
“There are many names out there; sometimes that’s because we debate many names; sometimes that’s just pure speculation, and we won’t get involved.”
When Chelsea plays Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, they will be looking to get off to a solid start in the new campaign.
Due to the fact that Chelsea’s competitors Tottenham, Arsenal, and Manchester United all strengthened their teams over the summer, there appears to be plenty of competition at the top of the league once more.
Tuchel acknowledged that his team’s opponents against Liverpool have the drive to get them closer to Manchester City.
Tottenham and Arsenal, as well as Man United, demonstrated their ambition and that they have a specific goal to overtake us and go closer to the top two teams during the preseason and in the transfer market.
“We’re in the middle of it, and breaking our heads over it won’t help.”
“We’ll have a highly competitive team, and I’m pleased with the additions of the guys who strengthened the group.” The emphasis is on this.
“The players arrived late, and more players need to arrive.” It is therefore somewhat of a disadvantage, but we have the people we have, and we will push them to their absolute limits.