Christensen ‘should continue his journey’ at Chelsea

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Thomas Tuchel has reiterated his belief that Andreas Christensen should stay at Chelsea for the good of his career.

It comes amid reports that Christensen has agreed a move to Barcelona, who can sign him on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the season.

There were doubts about his Chelsea future even before the sanctions placed on Blues owner Roman Abramovich prevented the club from negotiating contracts with players.


Head coach Tuchel said: “I gave a pretty honest statement some weeks ago, when I said I think that at the moment he is in exactly the right place and should continue his journey at our club to become the defender he can be – the figure that he wants to be.

“And in my opinion he should not forget who gave him where he comes from – his education.

“In my opinion he needs that kind of environment to bring the very best out of him.

“You cannot take these things personally. If he decides to continue his career somewhere else then that’s his decision. We don’t need to understand it and don’t need to agree, but we will not take it personally.”

Tuchel also insisted that he has “no concerns” about Christensen’s commitment to Chelsea despite the Dane seemingly being set to leave Stamford Bridge – and expects him to give his all.

Tuchel added: “Maybe it’s a bit more challenging for him than normal.

“Maybe he cleared his future. I don’t know yet. But for me it was very clear when I had conversations with him last season, in summer, autumn and through winter, that the bottom line was that as long as you’re my player I expect you to be 100% committed and I will not accept anything less.

“I will not start digging into how much he is committed and how can he handle now, because this only leads to distraction. But this (commitment) is what I demand from him.

“He is our player and we want to have the most of him. And he needs to be focused – this is his job and he needs to be determined.

“That is what we expect from him and I think it’s what we can expect from him.

“While he’s our player I will not stop demanding everything from him and he needs to be fully, fully committed. This is what we expect – and what we experience from him.

“You’ll have to ask him about his decision and what, in the end, the reasons were for his decision.”