‘It was the owners’: Todd Boehly got £7m Chelsea player to sign a new contract, not Tuchel – journalist

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The Chelsea owners sorted a new contract for Cesar Azpilicueta this summer rather than Thomas Tuchel, it’s been claimed.

Azpilicueta, 33, signed a fresh two-year deal in August to extend his stay at Stamford Bridge.

The £7million defender has achieved so much with the Blues since joining a decade ago, but his journey is not over yet.

Chelsea owners sorted Azpilicueta contract

Journalist Liam Twoney, who was speaking on The Athletic’s ‘Straight outta Cobham’ podcast, gave a fascinating rundown of Azpilcueta’s situation.

He claims that it was Todd Boehly and his fellow Chelsea owners that were the driving forces in ‘Azpi’ signing a new contract last month.

Apparently, Thomas Tuchel, who was dismissed as Blues manager recently, was leaning towards letting the Spanish defender exit the club amid interest from Barcelona.

However, the Chelsea hierarchy made sure to get the player’s future sorted with a new deal.

Twoney said on Azpilicueta’s situation: “It was the owners. Tuchel wasn’t saying you have to leave but it was pretty clear from the defensive reinforcements that he was asking for and the way the playing time shook out in the second half of last season that Azpilicueta was slowly phasing out of being a regular starter.

“I don’t think he was delighted about that because Azpilicueta still feels like he can play every week, he really looks after himself. Fans will have their opinions on whether that is true of not, but he is going to back himself.

“Todd Boehly and the other owners really value Azpilicueta as a character and an influence and they saw no reason to lose him, especially as Barcelona weren’t putting any money on the table. I think he would have liked to have gone, there is no secret there, it felt like a good time to end his Chelsea chapter but he was happy to stay and the only thing he was worried about was whether it would imperil his chances of being in the Spain squad for the World Cup.

“But it was the owners rather than Tuchel [who offered him a new deal] and he will be involved under Potter.”

Now that Graham Potter is in charge as Chelsea’s boss, it’ll be interesting to see how Azpilicueta gets on.

He doesn’t have any loyalty to the squad of players following his fresh arrival, but he must rate Azpilicueta as a senior figure after starting the club captain during his first game in charge.

There’s not too much fans should read into yet from one game of the Potter reign. However, next month is going to tell everyone who he’s picked out as his early favourites in the job.

In fairness, Chelsea’s owners aren’t foolish getting a player who loves Chelsea like Azpilicueta to stay around the place. He doesn’t belong in the best XI any longer based on pure football ability, though.

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