Chelsea will do a U-turn to keep on-loan midfielder Saul Niguez beyond the summer — if UK Government sanctions allow them to.
Saul struggled after joining the club from Atletico Madrid at the start of the season and, despite finally settling and getting more game time in recent weeks, the Blues were not expecting to take a clause in the loan deal which gave them first option to buy.
However, they will now explore whether the terms of the initial agreement will permit them to sign the Spaniard for the pre-agreed fee of £29.3million given they cannot make any new signings.
Chelsea have until May 30 to communicate their decision to Atletico.
Tuchel admitted recently that Saul had started to adjust to life in England and demonstrated his quality on the pitch for Chelsea.
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He said: "I think he will be an important player for us and I hope so as well. He has showed what he can do with his abilities.
"I see more confidence in him with each game, he is in good shape and his adaptation to the way we play has gone further from before.
"You can see this in his game now. He is more open, he understands the language better now and these are all important things to consider when talking about Saul and how much he has improved recently.
"He is having much more impact on games than he was doing at the beginning of the season and this is very important."
Meanwhile, the club are set to lose captain Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who are all out of contract at the end of the season and cannot re-sign for Chelsea before any new owner comes in even if they want to.
Christensen is understood to have agreed to join Barcelona, while Rudiger is a target for Newcastle and Manchester United, as well as Real Madrid, and Azpilicueta is also wanted by Barcelona.
Tuchel acknowledged some of Chelsea's players are worried about what the future holds at Stamford Bridge.
He said: “Some players will feel uncertainty. Some maybe will be a bit frightened. Some will be concerned. It’s normal.
“And not only the players. We have a lot of people on the staff, in the club who are maybe also worried and scared and uncertain.
“That’s why it’s very important that we keep the trust and the belief in the training centre, in all of us. We rely on ourselves and in the end allow ourselves to be the guys who take care of the sport.
“We did not cause the situation. We cannot solve the situation. And it can also give us the freedom in the end to still enjoy what we are doing and still follow the responsibility to give everything, and what we demand of ourselves.
“This is what we do and I’m happy we can still produce results and performances.”
