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Chelsea players now scared to touch the No. 9 shirt—Tuchel
Chelsea for some years now has dealt with the superstition of their famed No. 9 jersey number.
It is something that the media has begun dubbing as a curse, in that world class players or talents who take on the famed number, find themselves going through one problem or the other with form.
It happened recently with Romelu Lukaku as the player returned to the club after a fine form in Italy and with his country, Belgium only to end up a flop at Chelsea after taking on the No. 9 shirt.
Now, according to club manager, Thomas Tuchel, the famed No. 9 shirt would be left vacant going into the new season not because there is a potential signing but because of the superstition following it.
The manager has revealed that his players have become too scared of the curse following the number and how it worked against several players who took on the number.
Lukaku returned to the club for a record sum of £97.5 million only to fail to impress.
Before then were players like Herman Crespo, Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao, Gonzalo Higuain and Alvaro Morata, many of which came to the club on the back of a stellar season only to fail to impress the minute the wore the No. 9.
“People tell me it’s cursed… It’s not the case that we leave it open for tactical reasons,” Tuchel said.
“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’,
“So we now we have a moment where nobody wants to touch the No 9. I’m also superstitious, I can understand why players maybe don’t touch it and have other preferences.”
On the case of Chelsea going after former Arsenal man, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Tuchel chose to play coy saying:
“Maybe we bring one more player, maybe not… We have options but at the same time, we know how many games are coming. So let’s see if we can still maybe sign a player.”
