Thomas Tuchel earlier confirmed that the side is set to fly to Lille later today for our Champions League knockout tie tomorrow, but was unsure as to what implications the sanctions may have on our trip to Middlesbrough for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final.
The German attacker believes the most important thing is to arrive at our scheduled fixtures, no matter how long it takes or at what cost.
‘I will pay, it is not a problem and it isn’t a big deal,’ Kai said. ‘To get to the games is the most important thing. Harder things are going on in the world right now, so if we have to take a bus or plane to any away game, I will pay. It is not a problem
We are all professional footballers and everyone knows it is a strange situation for the club. We are the players so we have to focus on playing football matches, that is the best we can do. The other stuff, the club can sort out by themselves. I can’t speak about it much because we’re all focussed on the games and I think this is the most important thing at the moment.’
When pressed on what the mood is like within the Chelsea dressing room, given the uncertainty off the pitch, the forward said the players are firmly fixated on their jobs to perform well on the grass, starting tomorrow as we look to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League as we take on Lille in the second leg of our round of 16 ties and begin the fixture with a 2-0 aggregate lead.
‘Everyone knows it is not easy. You always try to focus on games. Such a situation has never happened at Chelsea before so it is, of course, strange, but we’re professionals and sometimes situations like this can happen,’ Kai said.
It is not easy for us all, especially for the whole club, fans, and everyone. The best we can do at the moment is play good football and try to smile at the fans also in these situations. Everything is tough for us at the moment, but as we saw at the weekend, we can handle these situations and hopefully tomorrow as well.’
Havertz also reiterated his comments he made post-match after the win over Newcastle on Sunday, that he feels privileged to be a Chelsea player given issues ongoing in the world away from football.
‘We are sitting here in Cobham, we play football, we can do what we love but there are a lot of bigger things happening right now than us playing football. You see these images, you think it is not possible things like this can happen,’ the German said.
Still, we sit here, play in a full stadium, and can enjoy some moments. For me, it is tough to speak about honestly because I am not a politician. I don’t know everything about it. I know it is the worst thing that can happen on the planet right now. I think we all stand for peace, so it is tough for me to speak about it. We all know this.
‘Obviously, people ask us first because we are public people, they want to know what we think about it. To be honest it is hard to answer these questions because we don’t get in touch with these situations and it’s tough to answer.’
PositiveMindsetstalks 