Thomas Tuchel amusingly shot down claims Erling Haaland was Chelsea's priority striker target as he discussed Romelu Lukaku's return to Stamford Bridge.
The Blues re-signed Lukaku from Inter Milan for a club-record £97.5million earlier this week, 10 years on from when the Belgian first arrived from Anderlecht.
Earlier in the transfer window, Chelsea were heavily linked with Borussia Dortmund ace Haaland, although they were reluctant to meet the German club's £150million asking price.
But Tuchel laughed off his side's reported interest in the Norwegian with a sarcastic response when asked if he plans to partner Lukaku and Haaland in a star-studded strike force.
"Yeah we tried for both," said the Blues boss. "We tried both and wanted to have [Robert] Lewandowski in the number 10 behind but unfortunately the board didn’t listen so we need to be happy with only Romelu!"
It was then put to Tuchel that he could have signed Lionel Messi on a free transfer after his Barcelona exit.
The German hit back with a smile by saying: "Yeah, we missed a lot of opportunities out there on the transfer market, that’s why you find me very upset and we don’t know how we should continue.
"No, honestly, we had a certain profile and like I said, we are very happy with the attitude and the mentality of the group and we want to protect it.
"It’s not a given that a group works like this group and this is a very precious thing and a thing that can be decisive in football and in my opinion it is decisive.
"We are careful with this group and we want to protect it so it was not about bringing the most possible amount of players into this group.
How many goals will Romelu Lukaku score this season? Comment below.
"It’s about we have to be sure that the players, of course good enough and talented enough, that it’s in the right state of mind that he has also something to give from his personality that improves us.
"And we were as sure as we could be – and in any transfer there are like always issues and doubts – but we could be very, very sure with Romelu because he knows the club and he knows what Chelsea is about, so we are happy that it’s like this."
Lukaku failed to find the back of the net in any of his 15 appearances for Chelsea during his first stint in west London.
But he has subsequently developed into one of Europe's finest strikers after goal-laden spells with Everton, Manchester United and Inter.
Lukaku, 28, was named Serie A MVP last season as he fired the Nerazzurri to their first title in 11 years with 24 goals.
