Speculation has been rife with regards to Chelsea making a move to bring Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan and our head coach was asked at his pre-Super Cup final press conference as to whether he was in a position to comment on those rumours.

The Blues are in Belfast ahead of tomorrow night’s Super Cup final against Villarreal at Windsor Park, but there was only one topic the journalists wanted to begin the press conference with…

‘I am absolutely not in the position to announce anything and I will maybe refuse to talk about players who are not at Chelsea, as we are also in a matchday mindset,’ Tuchel explained at his media briefing.

‘This is not the moment for personal discussions of our squad. We have a very clear structure in the club, everybody has ideas whether that is Marina [Granovskaia], the owner, Petr [Cech].

'We always try to improve but at the same time, we also believe in the development of our players and we have a lot of young players up front like Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, who are all in their second season and I am sure the experience of last year will give them a huge boost.’

On Tammy Abraham

Tuchel was also asked if he could update on the future of Tammy Abraham, with rumours linking him with a move away from the club…

‘Unfortunately not, I cannot update there,’ added Tuchel. ‘I have no clarity on that and like I said earlier, I will not comment on the situation.

‘Tammy is available, he is here with us and he is in the squad.

‘What I will say about Tammy is that he did some good preparation matches, he was clearly not happy with how much he played in the last half year or so and maybe he has reason not to be happy with that. Maybe it was also my fault not to push him or trust him as much other players, and I can absolutely understand that he wants more minutes.’

Early team news

The boss was also asked whether those players that arrived later into pre-season, such as Mason Mount, Thiago Silva and Jorginho, would be involved against Villarreal.

‘We will see,’ updated the German.

‘They could certainly start but the question is can they finish the game, and I think honestly right now the answer is no.

‘They have had eight days of training in their legs and let’s be honest, a European final after just eight days is pretty demanding. It is too early for them to complete the 90 minutes at this level, so we have to find the right mix. Clearly the guys who came in early and have more minutes deserve to start.’