Charly Musonda admits he offered to play for nothing to continue with Chelsea.
The forward has been with the Blues since a 15-year-old and made seven senior appearances.
This year he did play for Chelsea's Under-23 side, but last month announced he would become a free agent when his contract expires next summer.
Following talks with Blues legend Petr Cech, who is their current technical director, Musonda decided he would leave at the end of the season.
He said on The Beautiful Game Podcast: “I spoke with the manager and I obviously knew what he thought of me in training.
"I explained to him the same thing, I will play here for free. It's not to do with the contract, I will literally play for free this year.
"I can be the last guy in the squad. Train hard, basically build my way through training, pay with the 23s, get some fitness back and from there see.
"It's a long season, there's a lot of games. I'm not even asking to start those games, I was just saying, if I can come on, get 15, 20 minutes here and there.
“He (Tuchel) understood. We had a good chat and he said, “Listen, it's not up to me. The contract talks are something else'."
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