In response to a number of questions on the subject, Tuchel made it clear his target is on keeping his players focused on the job at hand in the short term, starting with the visit of Brighton.

‘I have known about it since yesterday,’ confirmed the boss of the European Super League plans.

‘I’m here to be in the hardest competitions, play the toughest competitions in Europe, that’s what I love and why I am at Chelsea.

‘I am part of this club, I want to play these hard competitions and I trust my club to make the right decisions. It’s too early to judge everything.

‘On my Chelsea badge it says I have to play my role, and everybody has to play their role. My role is to be a coach and be focused, and we have an important game coming up tomorrow.

‘There are a lot of comments, arguments and opinions out there. I absolutely don’t want to get involved in it because I don’t know the details.’

Tuchel said he hasn’t discussed the topic with his players because it is a late training session today ahead of the evening fixture tomorrow.

‘The best thing is to stay calm and try and focus on our match which is maybe now a little bit more different than it was before,’ he explained.

‘Clearly I was not involved, and my players were not involved in this decision-making. We have the possibility to step back and not give our opinions, and don’t lose our head about this because it is clearly a thing between the clubs.

‘We have to make sure we fight for the goals we still have this season, which is my job to do and the players’ job to fulfil in the next days,’ added Tuchel.

‘Inside, we trust the club, it’s best if we do not get involved in sports politics and in these situations. It’s above our heads. It’s not the role we have to fulfil to make this club successful.

‘Everybody is talking, maybe it’s impossible for the players not to be influenced by it, but it’s still too early and there are a lot of opinions. Hopefully we can stay calm, like we are at Cobham, and can have influence to the players they don’t distracted and bring the performance we need for tomorrow’s game.’