Christopher Nkunku Enjoys First Training Session as Chelsea Player
Christopher Nkunku enjoyed his first training session as a Chelsea player on Friday and it wasn’t just fans of the London club who were excited. The France international’s transfer was agreed last November but was not officially ratified until earlier this month.
Nkunku, now fully recovered from the injury which ruled him out of last December’s World Cup, is now hoping to his the ground running at Stamford Bridge and will be included in Mauricio Pochettino’s pre-season tour squad. The 25-year-old scored 23 times in all competitions last season for RB Leipzig and Chelsea will be hoping he can bring some of that surefootedness in front of goal to west London given the troubles the Blues endured last term.
Nkunku will doubtless require time to adjust to the rigours of Premier League football but one man who appears to be confident of success is his international teammate Kylian Mbappe. Underneath an Instagram post of Nkunku being put through his paces at Chelsea Cobham training base, the PSG superstar wrote ‘Going to get my Popcorn’.
Chelsea are scheduled to play five games in America over the next three weeks and the club will hope to avoid a repeat of 12 months ago when Thomas Tuchel fumed over a chaotic tour that left his squad ill-prepared ahead of what turned out to be a tumultuous campaign.
Pochettino is still hoping that the futures of a number of players deemed surplus to requirements will have been sorted before he and his team fly to America. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi have all attracted interest from Saudi Pro League clubs but none of that quartet are close to securing their exits. Reece James, meanwhile, is expected to be fit enough to feature in pre-season after he underwent a precautionary scan on his knee earlier this week.
It remains to be seen how quickly Nkunku can make an impact at Chelsea but his arrival has certainly added to the excitement surrounding the club ahead of what could be a defining season for the Blues. With a new manager and a host of new faces, Chelsea fans will be hoping that this time next year they are celebrating a return to the Champions League.
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