Thomas Tuchel admits Chelsea have a ‘huge disadvantage’ as he eyes busy summer of transfer activity

REUTERS

Thomas Tuchel says Chelsea must immediately hit the transfer market to close the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool.

A 2-1 win against Watford saw Chelsea finish a distance third in the table in a season when they were expected to mount a serious title challenge.

Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen are both leaving as free agents, leaving Tuchel on the hunt for two top class defenders.

He also wants to strengthen in attack after accepting his side are not clinical enough to keep pace with City and Liverpool.

But with Chelsea still unable to make signings until Todd Boehly completes his buyout of Roman Abramovich, Tuchel admits they face a race against time.

“There is no need to make excuses now, it is just the situation we are in and we have to be as quick as possible,” he said.

“Right now, of course, it is unsatisfying because our hands are tied and we cannot act as we want.

“We have clear ideas for the profiles and characteristic of these players (we want to sign). It is not like you put a name on the list and then you get the player.

“You have to convince the player, you have to speak to other clubs and convince yourself this is the player. There is normally a lot of work and it will be the same to be competitive next season, while everybody else tries to close the gap to us.

“The two top teams are what they are - a benchmark of consistency. This is the situation and from there we do our very best to be competitive because this is what we want to be.”

Tuchel believes next term’s Premier League title race will be even more fierce with Erik Ten Hag taking over at Manchester United and Antonio Conte embarking on his first full season in charge at Tottenham.

“It will be a super tough race,” he added. “Manchester United will be in the race, Tottenham will be in the race with Antonio Conte for sure.

“We want to stay in the race and Liverpool and Man City do everything to make their squads bigger and they set the standard so high. This is the challenge in which we compete. We have in the moment a huge disadvantage.

“If you look at the last year we have only been in the top three, this is very good, and there is always room for improvement.“The level of consistency from City and Liverpool was too much for us, it was too high.

“It will not get easier to close this gap, because while we are forced to be passive they are improving their squads.

“But this is the challenge, and we need to be fast and smart when it’s possible to have a competitive team.”

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