Chelsea ‘set to swoop’ for Dortmund’s Pulisic
LONDON: Chelsea will bolster Maurizio Sarri’s squad by signing Borussia Dortmund wide player Christian Pulisic, although a fee still has to be agreed with the Bundesliga leaders.
The 20-year-old American has indicated that he wants to join Chelsea in a deal worth around £60 million (RM316 million) next summer and it could be confirmed as early as next month.
However, it will raise further doubts over the future of 18-yearold Callum Hudson-Odoi, who is being pursued by Bayern Munich and whose contract ends in 2020. Hudson-Odoi is the brightest hope from the much-vaunted Chelsea academy but has seen his pathway to the first team blocked.
With RB Leipzig and Monaco also tracking Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea risk losing him for a minimal UEFA compensation fee in 18 months time, likely to be around £2 million.
If he was sold in January they might get £25 million and so will need to consider any offers if they want to back Sarri in the transfer market and comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play.
Sarri has insisted he wants Hudson-Odoi to stay but with Willian, Pedro and Eden Hazard ahead of him as wide players, the arrival of Pulisic will push him further down the pecking order.
Meanwhile, Chelsea’s week of shame was compounded on Saturday evening when an image emerged that suggested travelling fans held up a flag that featured a Nazi symbol during their trip to Budapest.
Chelsea had already publicly condemned their supporters and urged the club’s fans to ‘summon brainpower’ after they sang an alleged anti-Semitic chant that disparagingly referred to Tottenham followers as ‘Yids’ this week.
Now an image has appeared on social media of fans holding up a Chelsea Headhunters flag that included the SS death’s head insignia outside a bar in Budapest.
It comes hot on the heels of the vicious abuse directed towards Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling at Stamford Bridge last week. Sterling has told a police investigation he heard racially motivated comments and four fans have already been suspended by Chelsea.