Thomas Tuchel is adamant that Romelu Lukaku remains a "big player" as he talked up his role next season amid reports of a summer exit.
The Belgian returned to Chelsea in the summer for £97.5m from Inter Milan.
Lukaku had been with the Blues early in his career before enjoying prolific spells at Everton, Manchester United and the Serie A outfit. Tuchel was on the lookout for a forward who could regularly produce in the final third back in the summer.
Lukaku was seen by many as the final piece of the jigsaw with a title charge talked up. However Chelsea have failed to keep pace with Manchester City and Liverpool whilst their summer signing has only scored five times in the league and has been the subject of public criticism from Tuchel.
The forward himself talked up a return to Inter just months after leaving them but Tuchel insists the 28-year-old will be part of his plans going forward. He said: "Always I want him to be an important part. Right now he is an important part of the squad next season. There are no players set to depart or improvements because of the situation.
"We signed a big player, we still have a big player. He didn't come on [against Everton] because we had three subs and had to use one for Jorgi at half time. He trained very well and maybe starts tomorrow."
Lukaku recently started in the defeat against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. Tuchel had talked up the Belgian before the contest but, following the 4-2 defeat, refused to discuss his player claiming he would not talk about "individual performances" following the manner of their defeat.
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Tuchel was particularly scathing about Lukaku following the defeat at City back in January. The Belgian was largely ineffective and his manager said: "Romelu Lukaku sometimes needs to [deliver] the service. He is included in this, he had many ball losses in very promising circumstances. He had a huge chance. Of course we want to serve him, but he is part of the team, and the performance up front, we can do much better."
However the German, who also has Timo Werner at his disposal, although he too has struggled to find the net regularly, has defended Lukaku since then. He said in February: "It is sometimes like this with strikers if they struggle a bit with self-confidence, if they struggle a little bit to find the space and to get involved against a good defensive side. It can be like this and it is of course not what we want and of course not what Romelu wants."
