Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has suggested that he blames himself over Tammy Abraham’s supposed desire to leave the club.
As is reported by Sky Sports, AS Roma are believed to have agreed a fee to sign Abraham, who appears to be on the way out of Chelsea this summer after two seasons with the first-team.
Abraham has been Chelsea’s top goal-scorer two years on the bounce, but Tuchel does not appear to value what the 23-year-old brings to the table and relegated him to the bench, or even the reserves, in the second-half of last campaign.
With Abraham now seemingly wanting out of Chelsea, Tuchel has spoken at length on the matter during his press conference ahead of tonight’s UEFA Super Cup. Quoted by Sky Sports, the German suggests that it’s nobody’s fault but his:
“I will not comment on the actual situations – how far this is and if it’s true and not true. Tammy is right now in the squad. He did some good preparation matches.”
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“He was clearly not happy with the last half a year and maybe he has reason also not to be happy and maybe it was also my fault not to push him, not to trust him on the same level I maybe trusted other players.”
“I can absolutely understand that he wants more minutes. So the decision will be ‘how do we plan, what are Tammy’s plans, does he fight his way back into the team from the position where he ended last season or does he want to change club to have the chance of being a regular starter?’
Ultimately, playing for a club like Chelsea means that you run the risk of being ousted from the side by a player superior to you. All due respect to Abraham, that’s all that’s happened here – Tuchel is not at fault.
With the World Cup set to take place in Qatar next year, you have to think Abraham will be looking to take that move to AS Roma, or elsewhere, in order to play first-team football and give himself a fighting chance of being on the plane.