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Thomas Tuchel will play a crucial role in Chelsea signing Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele on a free transfer this summer, according to reports.
Dembele, 25, is set to leave the Camp Nou at the end of June once his current contract expires having not yet found an agreement to extend his stay with the Catalan giants.
His future remains unclear after Barcelona gave him an ultimatum following a lack of dialogue with his representatives in the last few weeks.
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Chelsea appear to be the frontrunners for the Frenchman - Paris Saint-Germain have cooled their interest, while Liverpool have also been linked with Dembele this summer.
Tuchel is yet to land his first signing of the summer which will also coincide with the first Men’s signing of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital era after their £4.25 billion takeover last month.
Jules Kounde is expected to be one of the first signings through the doors in west London, a year on from the deal collapsing in the final stages of the window last summer.
Where Dembele ends up next month is still a mystery but according to Sport in Spain, ‘everything seems to indicate’ that he will leave Barcelona and reunite with Tuchel at Stamford Bridge.
But the Chelsea boss, who has been on holiday in Italy, will play a major factor in whether or not he arrives in England with the German claimed to be a ‘crucial part of the deal’.
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They were linked with the 25-year-old in January, but Tuchel squashed all speculation: "I did not have contact with Ousmane. There was no contact in winter."
Tuchel added: “He is a very good player when he is in his top level. I am very fortunate to have trained him in my time at Dortmund. It was only one year, it should have been longer.”
Dembele would join an array of attacking talent at Tuchel’s disposal, however it could spell the departure of either of Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, with the club willing to listen to offers for all three forwards.
Chelsea have been linked with Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling and RB Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku as other potential players who could add to Tuchel’s attack.
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It won’t be a surprise if Chelsea do add to their forward line ahead of the 2022/23 season due to Tuchel’s comments at the end of last season when he said: “If we stick to the group then we will try to solve it with these players. Is it necessary to bring more offensive players around the box to create more distractions, to create more space for each other? We will ask that question. Can we do better in the structure? Can we push the players more? Did we rotate too much? Let’s see.
“There are a lot of options. The numbers we produce from our offensive players don’t allow us to over-perform and we need over-performance if we want to be nearer to the top two teams. I am not pointing fingers, I am not blaming anybody, but we need over-performance from everybody. It’s not over-performance if we have only single figures in scoring and assisting.”
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Chelsea, Chelsea Transfer News & Rumours, Thomas Tuchel, Ousmane Dembele, Barcelona