Chelsea FC coach Thomas Tuchel has confirmed the media reports about defender Toni Rudiger who will be leaving the club in the upcoming summer transfer window.
The German praised his team’s patience and resilience which helped them in grabbing a 90th minute 1-0 victory against West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
With only a few months left on his contract, Toni Rudiger had made his feelings pretty clear to his coach that his intention was to leave after this season.
“The media is reporting things and the situation seems to be that he is leaving the club. He informed me of this some days ago in a personal talk,” Tuchel said in an interview on Chelsea’s official website.
“I have the feeling that we gave everything over many months, both me personally and the club, but unfortunately we were in a position where we could not fight anymore because of the sanctions and Toni has said that he will leave the club,” he added.
On Sunday’s game, Tuchel praised the patience of his players.
“Games like West Ham are very hard to have a spectacular, open game against them and full credit to them. They defend normally with eight or nine players deep around their box and they do this so disciplined that it’s very hard to find spaces to accelerate,” Tuchel said.
“I did not expect a spectacular game in general. The first half was a bit stuck but that was a little because of the uncertainty with the latest results here at home and we grew into it. We never lost discipline or patience,” he further added.
(Inputs from IANS)