Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has admitted that captain Cesar Azpilicueta wants to leave for Barcelona.
Centre backs Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, both out of contract this summer, are set to leave for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively on free transfers.
And despite Azpilicueta triggering a contract extension after a certain number of appearances, Blues boss Tuchel admitted they may allow him to leave for Barcelona after 474 appearances in all competitions across a decade of sterling service.
He said: “It felt like he won everything after the Club World Cup, then suddenly given his personal situation I can understand these thoughts that maybe a cycle is at its end. Then it’s a change of ownership and he played only under this owner, in this structure, so it maybe increased even his second thoughts about his situation.
“Then his (contract) extension kicked in at the same time and he loves the club, he loves the challenge, he loves to be here and he is our captain… Given the fact we lose already key defenders, it’s not the ideal scenario to think about losing Azpi, even if I can understand his personal point of view.
“At some point, if you are a legend, which he is, you deserve maybe also from me and the club, a second look at it, is there is maybe an exception from the rule and we are still in this process. If he cannot get rid of this feeling, if we have to talk about it openly, seriously and respectfully because he deserves it.
“This is what we have to find out. That does not mean we find it out tomorrow or today, we still have time because we are also in the privileged position where we have a contract. We have to see… I would hope strongly, he knows this (Chelsea want to keep him), he knows it. We are still in the talks to find out the ideal solution”
