A new week. A new coast. And another new U.S. city for Thomas Tuchel and his Chelsea players. Orlando – and its stifling humidity – will play host to the Blues for much of the next week as they continue their rigorous preparations for the 2022/23 campaign.
Chelsea flew out from Las Vegas to the East Coast of the United States on Sunday, which was a somewhat relaxed day after the pre-season friendly against Club America the previous evening. However, not every member of the squad was aboard the plane that left Sin City.
As exclusively revealed by football.london, a shock decision was taken to send Billy Gilmour and Harvey Vale to Salt Lake City to join up with the Development Squad. Tino Anjorin also didn't travel to Orlando as he finalises a loan move. The injured Armando Broja, meanwhile, flew back to the United Kingdom late on Sunday. Strong interest remains in his services.
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"I didn’t like to do it because everyone deserves to stay with the squad but we had a very big squad already and then players came additionally on top," explained Tuchel. "Some players like Kova (Mateo Kovacic) are now fit again to train with the group so we cut it down and sent some young players to the second team who are also in America.
"It's a very difficult decision because nobody deserved to go. I would have loved to have had everybody here because Tino, Harvey and Billy had trained at a very high level and it would also have been nice to see them in some matches. But in the end, we had to take the decision to keep the quality high in training so we decided for 24 players as a maximum and that’s why we went a bit smaller.
"Armando had to travel home. He had a little accident in training. He twisted his ankle and he needs further examinations and treatments in London. It did not make sense to just have him as an additional player because we need all capacities of treatment for the guys who are actually fit and on the pitch so the best way for him to get the best treatment and as soon as possible back on the pitch was to leave for London."
The slimmed-down Chelsea squad got back to work on Monday in Orlando and there was a new face with Kalidou Koulibaly undertaking his first official training session since arriving in a deal worth around £34million from Napoli. Just as he did with Raheem Sterling in Los Angeles, Tuchel gave the 31-year-old a special greeting.
"Welcome on the pitch officially, Kalidou," the German said. "I'm so happy that you're here. Everybody is happy that you are here. Enjoy your first training session."
The intense heat and humidity in Orlando meant it was a tough session for Chelsea's players. Several different ways of cooling down mid-session were tried: Cesar Azpilicueta stood underneath a sprinker; Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell poured bottles of water over their faces; Mason Mount dunked his head into an ice bucket.
"It's quite a challenge," Tuchel admitted in an interview with the club website. "We've changed our location for the third time, so it's a lot of travelling and another time zone [for us to adjust to]. It's also a totally different feeling of temperature, huge humidity. So it was very demanding for the first training and the players are struggling with the heat.
"We give maybe more time to drink and more breaks, but we can't hide from the fact we're in pre-season and we have to put kilometers into our legs. So from this point, we don't adapt."
The air miles will continue to mount for Chelsea's players and staff in the days ahead with the Blues set to make the short journey north to Charlotte to take on MLS side Charlotte FC in their second pre-season friendly on Wednesday evening.
Originally, the squad was due to fly to North Carolina on Tuesday afternoon but Tuchel is understood to have added an extra training session to the first-team squad's schedule. They will instead fly up for the game on Wednesday morning before swiftly returning to their base in Orlando after the clash at the Bank of America Stadium.
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