Thomas Tuchel when on fine form in a press conference is never short of a few memorable one-liners.
Be that his infamous "why not?" response to his first-ever question in the hot seat when posed why he joined the club. Labelling Thiago Silva the Benjamin Button of football. "Thiago Button". Or most recently, telling Ruben Loftus-Cheek that "self-confidence doesn't come from being big and tall and good looking, which he is. It also comes from experience."
On Wednesday, we got another. This time in response to Chelsea's upcoming transfer window, and how the club can prepare when the new owner has not been finalised and ongoing sanctions on Roman Abramovich prevent the club from laying the groundwork necessary.
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"Cosmetic surgery," Tuchel laughed. "When going would be less concerned if we had still the same ownership. As this is also in question we are, not concerned, but aware of the danger that the situation is maybe a bit more complex.
"It is demanding enough nowadays in football to lose this kind of quality in a back three, lose two key players for free... it can be a very, very demanding summer. We can still have the talks inside the building but we cannot act."
The use of the term "cosmetic surgery" is a far cry from his mentor Ralf Rangnick's assessment of the Manchester United squad needing "open-heart surgery". However, it still indicates a more tailored approach to recruitment that refines the look of the current squad for next season.
Whoever goes on to be announced as the preferred bidder in the club's takeover process will instantly face a challenging summer that includes major contract calls, the need to replace major players and resolving an almost £100million issue called Romelu Lukaku. All of these areas would be challenging enough during normal circumstances, let alone on the back of a seismic change within the club.
Drilling down into what cosmetically needs changing in the Blues' current squad, it firmly comes down to the profile of the player recruited. How do they fit into the style of play? Their attributes? How versatile can they be under a coach like Tuchel?
This may sound repetitive or even reductive analysis, but too often these questions have not found positive answers. What better example do we have than Lukaku? A superb forward under Antonio Conte at Inter Milan, also scoring goals everywhere else he'd been but has looked out of place when moved into Tuchel's counter-pressing, more possession heavy system.
What happens to Lukaku is hard to gauge, mainly due to the finances involved and the increasingly small number of clubs capable of taking the Belgian off Chelsea's hands. You can extrapolate the Lukaku story further throughout this squad when looking at players who do not match the profile of the first-choice option in their position.
Tuchel did go on to mention that it is unlikely a new owner walks in and hands over £250million to spend, forcing the club to move more shrewdly in the market, likely targeting names that are less obvious, or glamorous. But as we have seen with names like Edouard Mendy, signed for £22million in 2020, it seems Chelsea sometimes does better when they spend less.
