Chelsea face a big week on the pitch as they look to progress in both the Champions League and FA Cup, while off-field issues continue to bubble away. Thomas Tuchel will know his primary task is to keep his players focused on the task in hand. Two big away trips, first to Lille on Wednesday and then to Middlesbrough on the weekend, will ultimately decide whether the season has been viewed as a success or not.
But in the wake of Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the government, all preparations have been thrown up in the air. Travel to these away trips is one of the biggest headaches facing Tuchel and his team, with their budget now limited, and football.london has taken a look at how they have been affected.
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What impact have the sanctions made on travel?
With Abramovich being the 100 per cent owner of Chelsea, the sanctions placed on him have affected the club. This means that the Blues are unable to carry out any activities that would see money move into the club. While a special license has been granted to carry on playing matches and paying their staff, aspects such as paying for travel have had to be reconsidered. As a result, caution is being applied when it comes to planning away days.
Details on just how the trips to Lille and Middlesbrough have been affected have been limited, although Tuchel did reveal that they had to put plans to fly to the north east this weekend on hold. The German has also previously joked about being willing to drive a bus on their travels if he has to.
What has Thomas Tuchel had to say?
In his latest press conference, Tuchel was asked bout both trips. On the visit to Lille, he said: "There are restrictions and we have to deal with them. There are adjustments in the amount of staff, who is travelling, how many rooms we have in hotels and how we arrive at matches. There will come some, to my understanding, that we can arrive at on a professional level.
"It isn't about luxury and bling-bling. This is just a professional level of sports, where we play with two days between matches with our opponent having four days between matches and we arrive with the possibilities of injuries. For that, it is better to arrive with a plan rather than a bus.
"We try to do it. From my understanding, we have a framework to go and play in Lille with absolutely no excuses. Regarding these organisations, it is already more difficult to arrange things on a professional level, in the best way possible, for the FA Cup. But we will deal with it."
On the Trip to Middlesbrough, Tuchel said: "We have to deal with it. We have some new things to talk about, like how to arrive at games. These are things that are normally taken care of by the organisation team and team management team. But now we have to stick together, have our heads together, give our opinions and find solutions on matters like arriving at matches.
"This was not the case before so there are some subjects we are not used to discussing, but no problem we discuss it. We spend some extra time, extra hours, to give our thoughts and find solutions.
"We want to find solutions because, as hard as we want to play the match tomorrow and make it to the next round, we to play the match on Saturday in the FA Cup and make it into the next round."
What have the players said?
Kai Havertz was on hand as part of Chelsea's pre-match press conference on Tuesday, as the German prepares for the trip to France. He was asked about the possibility of players having to pay for their own travel to games, should it come to it.
"I would pay, it's not a problem. That's not a big deal for us. For us to come to the games, that's the most important thing," he said.
"I think there are a lot of harder things in the world at the moment if we have to take the bus or plane to an away game. I would pay. It's no problem."
