has warned that Wesley Fofana is ‘not for sale’ after rejected their £60m bid for the French defender.
Blues boss is desperate to bolster his defensive options before the transfer deadline and .
While Leicester , the west London club are currently preparing an improved bid of around £70m.
Fofana signed a new contract at the King Power Stadium in March to keep him at the club until the summer of 2027.
Leicester have also and Rodgers has reiterated the club’s stance that they intend to keep both Maddison and Fofana.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Rodgers said: ‘These players are not for sale. These are very important players to us.
‘We’re in a situation where we need to move some players out but that doesn’t mean getting rid of anyone and everyone and especially not our best assets.’
Chelsea , having earlier in the summer.
But the Blues, who finished third in the Premier League last season, remain interested in signing another defender before the summer window closes on September 1.
Speaking after a , Tuchel said his Chelsea team might not be ready for their Premier League opener against Everton.
Tuchel was asked about his comments at his pre-match press conference and said: ‘We are some steps further ahead now. It was absolutely necessary.
‘Maybe it was also necessary to lose that game like we lost it against Arsenal, against a big rival in the league who is trying to take our place.
‘Maybe it was a wake-up call for everybody. Since then we have stepped up. As always, the last week before the season is always where you feel a new focus, new excitement, new level of focus in training.
‘Legs are fresh now, fresher than when we trained in Florida. Still, we are not where we can be but let’s see, we feel ready and competitive for tomorrow.
‘A very good training week so far, the atmosphere is back to where it was before the Arsenal game like in the first weeks of pre-season. Then we lost the energy towards the Arsenal game.
‘After that we needed to digest but last week is good, we feel ready for tomorrow. This is very important to not lose focus and take the first week step by step.
‘We took the possibility to prepare the whole week for Saturday, nothing else. This is where we are.’
Ex-Chelsea defender Glen Johnson admits his former club could be in a battle to secure a top-four spot this season but insists Tuchel’s squad are ‘one or two signings’ away from competing for the title.
‘They’ve lost a few key players and obviously they’ve made some good signings but they need to hit the ground running, and if they don’t, they could they could be flirting with it,’ Johnson told .
‘I don’t think you can pay too much to it in pre-season you know, but you still don’t want to get smashed anytime.
‘I don’t think Chelsea are going to be good enough to get in front of Man City or Liverpool. They’re fighting for the top-four.
‘I think the squad has been light. I think the starting 11 on its day can compete but they haven’t got the squad that can compete with these boys across the course of the season, especially when they were going deep into the Champions League, deep into the FA Cup.
‘I just think the squad was a little bit light, it had the quality but was just a bit light. Now they’ve lost a few players, obviously it really didn’t work Lukaku.
‘So I think it was a little bit unlucky because if you get a striker there that chips in with even 15 or 12 goals they would have been further up.
‘I think they’re only one or two good players away from competing. But the start is really important for them.’
, .
,  and .
