Chelsea news: USMNT star Christian Pulisic could be faced with a challenge to find a new team over the summer with one club off the list already.
Christian Pulisic is one of an array of Chelsea stars expected to leave over the summer as Todd Boehly attempts a mass clearout at the club. With under 18 months remaining on his contract and plenty of fresh competition in the squad for attacking places, the American could be used as a form of recouping funds and freeing up space.
Finding a club capable of matching his wages, ambition on the field and also with a desire to sign him is going to be the big problem. One of the potential moves had been heading back to Germany.
Sadio Mane has not had the season he hoped for and there is the small task of making up for the goals lost in Robert Lewandowski's absence. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has been a late bloomer but isn't the long-term answer. Pulisic may well have had a way into the European giants but Thomas Tuchel's recent appointment puts a spanner in the works for that.
"I'd had a really good first leg performance and our following match was against Fulham in the league. Tuchel told me that he was resting me for the second leg and as a result I didn't play a single minute in the Fulham game.
"Then on match day of the second semi, Tuchel tells me he's changed his mind and he's going with Kai [Havertz]. I honestly was dumbfounded and very disappointed. I thought that I'd earned a start and, most importantly, he had assured me previously I was going to start."
Pulisic had started, impressed and scored in Madrid, helping the team to a 1-1 draw but had to settle for a place off the bench in the return leg. "So by the time he brought me on with about 25 minutes left, I was just so wound up," the winger added.
"As I take off on the run, I hear Thomas Tuchel yelling from the sideline, 'Christian, stay in the pocket, don't make the run!' he wrote. "But I just had the feeling I'd find the space and get on the end of the pass, so I continued the run." Pulisic did then manage to square the ball for Mason Mount to secure passage to the final in Porto.
Such was Tuchel's criticism though that pass was described as his favourite assist. It may now have closed off a move to Bayern for Pulisic though, with the words he printed coming back to bite him here.
Chelsea's dream XI to face Aston Villa after England and USMNT games with two changes for Potter