Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has claimed that he "fell into a trap" with his recent comments about Erling Braut Haaland.
The Blues were heavily linked with a move for the Borussia Dortmund man throughout the summer before forking out £97.5m to re-sign Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan.
Tuchel recently claimed that Chelsea had regular conversations about Haaland within the club, but the ex-BVB coach has now seemingly backtracked on those comments.
Tuchel told the media: "I fell into a trap. I got an award in Germany, an award from a newspaper. They gave me this award and asked me about a player.
"Normally I never, never speak about other players, because I simply never do. We were making more or less fun about it and I should have known better.
"Because in making fun about it and being a nice guy to answer a question ... getting this award I joke about a double striker with Romelu [Lukaku] in October and it gets like we put an offer in. That was the context, but I should have known better."
Dortmund were reportedly angry with Tuchel's initial comments about Haaland, who is also being linked with Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
Ben Knapton
