Thomas Tuchel tight-lipped on reports linking Romelu Lukaku with Chelsea return

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel refused to comment on whether his club are interested in signing Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku.

Reports emerged in Italy on Wednesday night that the Belgium international told Inter to accept a bid from Chelsea, which would see him return to Stamford Bridge after a spell between 2011 and 2014.

Tuchel was quizzed on the matter after his side drew 2-2 with Tottenham in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday, but did not give anything away.

“I will not talk about players who don’t play in my squad,” the German said.

“He is a fantastic player but a player from Inter and with all due respect I will not talk about him. Not everybody but I can imagine a lot of players want to come and join [Chelsea] but we don’t comment on that.”

With Oliver Giroud leaving for AC Milan, Chelsea are lacking a target man style striker in their squad.

Tuchel added: “I think with the exit from Olivier Giroud from the type of players we could use a player used to playing with their back to goal, whose strength is to keep possession from long balls, so we can add this direct style of play to our portfolio.

“This is the characteristic of player that is not Tammy (Abraham), Timo (Werner) or Kai (Havertz) so this is a profile we don’t have in the squad and could be useful but not for any cost and not hectic or in panic.

“No matter what happens we will be competitive and have trust in our guys that we can still develop and that we have young players in the offensive part of the game who we demand that they need to improve.

“We are relaxed and very well aware of our situation at the same time.”