Thomas Tuchel urges new Chelsea owners to keep Petr Cech and Marina Granovskaia

As Chelsea listened to the final pitches of the billionaires bidding to buy the club, Thomas Tuchel made his plea to whichever of them is successful to keep Marina Granovskaia and Petr Cech.

Tuchel has deliberately stayed out of the talks with the three groups, fronted by Todd Boehly, Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton, who are now waiting to find out which of them has won the race to buy Chelsea following a final round of pitches at Stamford Bridge.

But it is clear that one of Tuchel's wishes, as he considers a summer in which he admits Chelsea have been disadvantaged by the takeover and sanctions imposed on the club, is that he continues to work with director Granovskaia and technical and performance advisor Cech.

Tuchel did not name Granovskaia and Cech, but the trio share a close relationship and it did not require too much reading between the lines to conclude that his overriding preference would be for the structure around him to remain the same.

“As you know, I was so happy with the structure that the club provides and the mentality Chelsea provides,” said Tuchel. “That was, for me, always the foundation to strongly believe and genuinely believe 'OK, we will push and keep on pushing'.

“With this now being questioned it's getting more demanding, not difficult because I don't know what's coming so let's see. But the key thing for me is that we keep the mentality in the building at least and in the club, the competitive mentality that was installed over more than a decade. It's a bit concerning and, hopefully, we can find our way through it.”

Chelsea already know they will need to replace defenders Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who are both leaving on free transfers at the end of the season, but cannot yet approach the representatives of players as their rivals are doing.

Tuchel joked that the surgery his squad would require this summer would be “cosmetic”, rather than the open heart surgery Ralf Rangnick has claimed Manchester United, Chelsea's opponents on Thursday night, are in need of.

But the head coach added: “I would be less concerned if we had the same ownership, if we could rely on our structure. It can be complex enough if you lose a player like Toni and maybe lose another player like Andreas with that kind of quality, and both of them for free.

“It can be demanding enough even if everything else stays in place. So with this in question it can be a very, very demanding summer, but I just want to be positive about it and stick to the things we can influence.”

Chelsea are likely to renew their interest in Sevilla defender Jules Kounde, who they tried to sign last summer, and are one of a number of clubs interested in Villarreal's Pau Torres.