Thomas Tuchel warns Chelsea over Jorginho and N’Golo Kante deals

Thomas Tuchel has urged Chelsea to give midfield duo Jorginho and N’Golo Kante new contracts to avoid losing the pair on a free next year.

Both players’ current deals at Stamford Bridge expire in the summer of 2023 and Tuchel wants to avoid a similar situation to that of Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger who are looking increasingly more likely to leave at the end of this season for nothing.

The club have so far failed to negotiate contract extensions for the two centre-backs and while nothing is set in stone yet, the defenders have already been courted by many top clubs around Europe including Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Chelsea, and by extension Tuchel, have been criticised for allowing the contract situation to play out like this and the German manager revealed in his pre-match press conference, ahead of Saturday’s game against Southampton, that he wants to prevent Jorginho and Kante from sharing the same fate.

He said: ‘Nobody wants that [contracts running out], absolutely. With important players, it’s a wish as a coach that we solve this in the summer any way.

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‘That it’s clear where the journey is, what the decision is. Otherwise, we have the same talks about Antonio and Andreas, we just swap the names, we talk about it through winter.

‘Then comes January, the agents talk with clubs and the brother to the other — it would be nice if we can avoid it. But at the moment, it’s a bit difficult. Yes, this should be the target for all of us.’

Losing Christensen and Rudiger would leave Tuchel short at the back and Jorginho and Kante leaving too would be an equally bitter blow, especially