Tuchel keen to assess Gallagher and Broja during pre-season

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel says the futures of Conor Gallagher and Armando Broja will be decided in pre-season.

Gallagher has impressed on loan at Crystal Palace this season, scoring eight times and winning the club’s player of the season award.

Broja, meanwhile, has netted nine times in all competitions at Southampton.

But Tuchel insists it is too early to know what the future will hold for both players, especially given the ongoing financial uncertainty surrounding his club.

“First of all they will come back for sure because they are our players and when we give them on loan we do this for them but also for us to have better players, more experienced players back,” he said.

“They are our players and I want to have them in pre-season when we’ll decide what’s going on.

“It’s heavily linked to them, it’s heavily linked to how they integrate, what they do, what our ideas are for them, what they want to reach and it’s heavily linked to our sanctions and the situation around the club.

“It’s too early to predict the future for them in the role of the whole season but they will be back in pre-season for sure.”

Meanwhile, Tuchel also shed light on the situation involving Andreas Christensen – who will join Barcelona at the end of the season – after he asked to be withdrawn from the squad ahead of the FA Cup final against Liverpool.

“Andreas came on the morning of the match to inform me that he’s not ready to play the match or to start the match or be on the bench,” Tuchel said.

“He had his reasons. They will stay private and confidential but it was not the first time. As you can see over the past weeks, we had some of the same situations which is why he did not play so regularly over the last weeks.

“We thought that we were in a good progression and a good development because he played very strong in the match before the final, against Leeds, but the conversation took place and we have to respect it and of course we respected it.”