Raheem Sterling’s transfer from Manchester City was completed to Thomas Tuchel’s satisfaction, but he insists that Chelsea must keep bringing in “top quality” to contend for the Premier League.
Sterling joined the Blues for £47.5 million on Wednesday, and Tuchel expressed his happiness in an interview with Sky Sports News, saying the England attacker would be a “big improvement” to the Chelsea team.
Kalidou Koulibaly, a center-back for Napoli, is in London for a medical after the teams agreed on a fee of about £32 million, and the London club is also getting close to signing him.
The Chelsea head coach made it plain that Chelsea, who lost star players like Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, and Romelu Lukaku this summer, must continue to sign top-tier players if they hope to challenge City and Liverpool for the title this coming season.
“The stakes are high and we’re competing not only against the best teams who have ever played in the Premier League but also the best coaches,” said Tuchel.
“If you [then] see the transfer period and quality of coach at Tottenham, if you see the same at Arsenal, at Man Utd, we know what the challenge is. It’s the toughest challenge you can [have].
“We come from sanctions, we come from losing top-quality players, key players, we are a club in transition, in transition of ownership, we were behind in the transfer race and we were behind in the table. So we have things to improve.
“The signing of Raheem shows what we’re capable of doing, it shows the ambition of the club and the ownership and it’s good because we’re all here to win and compete.
“We love to compete and we love the challenge at the very top. For that we need signings of new quality players or otherwise there’s no chance.”
