Chelsea has recently appointed Mauricio Pochettino as its new manager with hopes of an immediate turnaround at Stamford Bridge, but it reportedly looks like one U.S. men’s national team star won’t have the opportunity to play under the Argentine.
Juventus is reportedly leading the race to acquire Christian Pulisic this summer, ESPN reported Tuesday. Pulisic, who has one year left on his current Chelsea contract, has been tagged with a £20 million transfer fee, according to the report.
Manchester United and Newcastle United have previously been linked with Pulisic’s services. Pulisic, 24, signed with Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund in 2019 for a reported £58 million.
The USMNT star struggled for the Blues during the 2022-23 campaign, scoring just one goal and adding two assists in 30 combined appearances. Pulisic missed part of the second half due to a knee injury, while Chelsea as a whole struggled for consistency in English Premier League action.
A former UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup winner, Pulisic has totaled 26 goals and 21 assists in 145 combined appearances for Chelsea.
Juventus sits seventh in Serie A following a 10-point deduction for false accounting, forcing them to miss next season’s UCL competition. The Old Lady can finish as high as fifth place, pending they win their final league match of the season against Udinese on Sunday.
Pulisic concluded his EPL campaign with Chelsea on Sunday, featuring for the final five minutes of the Blues’ 1-1 draw with Newcastle.
While it is moderately good to see that anyone wants Pulisic these days, Juve ought to throw up many dire warning signs. McKennie is probably not coming back, right? Their financials are terrible? Horrible club on the whole?
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Why can’t Pulisic just find an English club with a decent coach, like Brighton, Brentford, West Ham, Palace, Aston Villa …?
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AAARGH ….
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(his “work rate” perception will have taken a hit too)
Brenden Aaronson has a very high “work rate perception”.
How’s that working out for him?
re juve, they are usually big on team defense and pulisic never struck me as that kind of constantly scrappy player. he will get stuck in on an isolated play but it’s not his 90′ way. to the contrary i think it would tire him out and he’s not as good a player exhausted.
to me he’s plateaued since roughly 2019 or so. i think he needs to go someplace and actually play. why not fulham? they like americans and he will be foundational. if he wants to be ambitious pick a team that fits his skill set. juve sounds instead like this is just an auction for the highest bidder which is not necessarily your best fit.
I really want him to get out of England. Italy or Spain would be excellent for him but he needs to find a stable club, which Juve is not currently.
Juve is a very big and successful club. They will bounce back 100%
Juve seems like another big club mess… If he has options, maybe somewhere else…Newcastle would be perfect, but if not, even a midtable team looking to move up and with need at that position. Somewhere he will play is most important.
And what position would he play at Juventus? If he goes there and plays as a RWB then what?
I don’t think he’d go somewhere where he’s not playing his best position anymore. I’ve always thought he needed to go to Serie A: it’s less brute-force physical than the Prem, and it’s more tactical. Those two attributes suit Pulisic, because he can be roughed up in congested areas, and he needs a team that will feature him as an inverted left wing, and one that has the tactical nous to get him into space without a gazillion bodies around him. Put Pulisic 1-on-1 against almost anybody when he has sufficient space to run at defenders and the option to go right or left, and he’ll abuse people, without that he can fade out of games.
If Juve leads for his services, he’s almost certainly been told he’d be a featured part of the project and they’d also almost have to have shown they have a very clear idea of how they’d use him. He’s definitely hitting that stage where he’s reaching the prime of his career, and both he and the teams he play for should now know what he can and he cannot do.
In contrast, I always sort of thought McKennie needed to be in the Prem. He’s got sufficient athleticism and physicality to make it there for the long haul, and while he can be sloppy with giveaways and he’s not much of a threat to score outside of set pieces with his head, his work rate is such he’d be a regular at virtually any squad outside maybe the top 5-6 teams in the Prem. Hopefully Leeds did not hurt the perception of him too badly.
his “work rate” will have taken a hit too if people closely watched him with Leeds, he was too lethargic and seemed not to care too much when on the field. And let’s be honest, he self identified himself as a player who doesn’t run a lot , or something to the effect of “everybody knows Tyler does all the running, and I do all the playing”! Yes, his stature has really taken a hit the last few months with Leeds, with his boy Mendoza running his mouth on social media not helping things, but ironically enough there seems to be a few teams in England who potentially want him in their squad for next season(Aston Villa and Brighton come to mind).
hey Ronnie, I didn’t watch any Leeds games after Jesse and Weston getting out of that toilet bowl will be a good thing. teams want him becasue he’s got what they want. I hope BA can get to Italy or Spain