Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling can help shape Chelsea as they attempt to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool, head coach Thomas Tuchel says.
The England forward, 27, has joined Chelsea from City for £50m on a five-year deal, the first signing by the club’s new American owners – with Tuchel hoping there are more to come.
“Hopefully he shapes our team by just being who he is,” Tuchel told BBC Sport.
“He will be a huge asset for us.”
Tuchel added: “For me, he is a huge player, with a huge influence in the last years in English football and he’s in a perfect age to now take responsibility around young players that we have and be an example.
“Getting what he delivered for years given his age, his hunger for responsibility, and his style of play and his amount of intensity is outstanding.
“It is the benchmark in the Premier League and is exactly what we need.”
Tuchel says that Sterling’s signing “is not the end”, with Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly set to sign a four-year deal and Manchester City centre-back Nathan Ake also close to joining.
The manager is keen to strengthen defensively after losing Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid and Andreas Christensen to Barcelona.
But he said the club have had to “work smart and fast” to keep up with their Premier League rivals, with ownership issues holding up their ability to make transfer plans following the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich in March.
The new ownership, led by United States co-owner Todd Boehly, took over from Abramovich in May, with restrictions placed on the club lifted.
Tuchel says he has a “very intense, very close” relationship with Boehly, who has also taken on the role of interim sporting director after recruitment and transfer specialists Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia departed last month.
“The relationship [with the owners] is very intense, very close, which it has to be – because without Petr and without Marina, it’s a big change in the daily structure and communication,” Tuchel said from Los Angeles as the team prepared for their pre-season tour of the US.
“I’m a lot more involved. I have to step up in terms of responsibility. I think in the long term or even when the close of the pre-season comes, I will want to be more on the coaching role again.
“But right now it’s important to improve our team, to bring players in to stay competitive because we want to compete for a minimum of top four. Given the fact that Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United act on the transfer market for weeks and months, we need to be smart, we need to be fast and we need to find solutions. It’s my job to help.”