Chelsea have £60m Cesar Azpilicueta replacement as Thomas Tuchel builds dream defence

"We will absolutely focus on our strengths and the qualities that we absolutely have and build a team that nobody wants to play against." Thomas Tuchel's words after his first Chelsea match almost exactly 18 months ago still ring true. The Blues are further down the line than they were after a 0-0 draw against Wolves, but the same principles apply.

Since then, Tuchel has had to make do with what he inherited. A squad of ageing players, a fractured changing room. His determination to "hurt everybody in every league and competition" straight away was vital to the kickstart to his position that he had. Trying to "bring evidence of that as fast as possible" helped Chelsea to a previously impossible Champions League triumph.

Along that path though and Chelsea have become a moulded team, Tuchel now wants to undo that in a sense. He has had to let go of key defensive stalwarts Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta could shortly follow, and if Marcos Alonso left then only N'Golo Kante would have won the Premier League with Chelsea.

The German now has the foundations of a very good squad, adding to that with experience and quality with Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly has only heightened the strength of the side, even with the departures. The third man to add into Tuchel's plans is Jules Kounde.

As Chelsea move closer to bringing in the versatile and highly rated 23-year-old defender, the start of this sentence alone tells you why he is of such value to Tuchel. After being pursued for most of last summer, the closer the deal gets the more sense it makes and the more it becomes remarkable that Chelsea nearly walked away from him in favour of Nathan Ake.

Kounde is the younger version, the less established