What Thomas Tuchel told Kalidou Koulibaly before Chelsea training as shock decision is explained

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 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