Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel reveals why nobody wants to wear no.9: They tell me it's cursed
India Today
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel spoke only about the curse of number 9 at Chelsea ahead of the pre-season and said that nobody wants to wear the shirt.
Chelsea are set to begin their campaign against Everton in the Premier League on Saturday, 6 August. They have made major changes in their squad, acquiring new defenders alongside winger Raheem Sterling. They have also loaned out their main striker Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan,, and remain without an out and out striker at the moment.
Speaking ahead of their game on Saturday, Tuchel spoke about the much-discussed curse of number 9 shirt at Chelsea and revealed that nobody wants to touch that jersey.
Lukaku was the last to wear the shirt after returning to Chelsea for a club-record fee of 97.5 million pounds but after one lacklustre season he rejoined Serie A side Inter Milan.
"People tell me it's cursed... It's not the case that we leave it open for tactical reasons," Tuchel told reporters.
"Surprisingly, nobody wants to touch it. Everybody who is here longer than me tells me, 'ah, you know, he had the nine and he did not score and he had the nine and did also not score'," Tuchel added.
"So we now we have a moment where nobody wants to touch the number nine. I'm also superstitious, I can understand why players maybe don't touch it and have other preferences."
