Kai Havertz insists he is prepared to pay his own way to help Chelsea get around the financial restrictions that could see the European champions have to take a 10-hour-round trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.
Chelsea have been restricted to a budget of just £20,000 for away travel under the special licence granted to them by the Government following the sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich last week.
While their Champions League clash with Lille was already arranged and paid for before the sanctions took effect, they are now facing up to the prospect of taking a skeleton staff to any further fixtures in the competition, should they progress beyond the round of 16.
It is a measure of the cost of travelling that a flight to Middlesbrough for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final is now deemed too expensive.
Chelsea are lobbying the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to have their budget increased. But Havertz insists he would be prepared to pay to ensure the club can continue to travel in the most professional manner.
“I will pay, that’s no problem,” he said. “I think that’s not a big deal for us. For us to come to the games is the most important thing.
“I think there are a lot of harder moments, harder things in the world right now than if we have to take a bus or plane to an away game. I will pay it, no problem.
“We are all professional football players. Everyone knows it’s a strange situation for everyone in the club right now.
“We are the players, we have to focus on playing football and on the matches. I think that’s the best we can do. All the other stuff, the club has to sort out. It’s not about the players.
“I cannot speak about it much because we are very focused on the games. This is the most important thing for us in the moment.”
The DCMS have already upped Chelsea’s budget for hosting home games from £500,000 to £900,000, but are yet to budge over away fixtures.
It is likely they will wait until after the tie with Lille to see if European travel will be required until the end of the season.
Tuchel revealed discussions are in place to alter Chelsea’s travel arrangements beyond Lille, but is adamant they will continue to fulfil their fixtures.
He said: “There are restrictions, we have to deal with it. There are adjustments in our amount of staff, who is travelling, how many rooms we have in hotels, how we arrive at matches. That will come soon.
“To my understanding everything is in place now we can arrive on a professional level. It is not about luxury, it is not about bling, bling. It is a professional level of sports where we play having only two days between matches while our opponents have four days.
“To arrive and decrease the possibility of injuries, for example. For that, it is better to arrive with a plane than to sit in a bus.
“We try to be as professional as possible in the frame that we can do it. To my understanding, we have a framework to go to Lille and play the game in Lille where there will be absolutely no excuses regarding this. It is like already a bit more difficult to arrange things in the best way possible in the FA Cup.
“As long as we have shirts, as long as we are ‘alive’, as long as we are a team and arrive with our players we will be competitive and fight hard for our success because we owe it to the people that support us in a very visible way. We are in the spotlight. It is our responsibility to do so and we will.”
