Chelsea supporters started to fear the worst for Christian Pulisic after learning that three rival clubs were tracking his movements, according to the Daily Mail.
Manchester United, Liverpool, and Bayern Munich were all been put on red alert following Pulisic’s exclusion from another Chelsea starting line-up by Thomas Tuchel.
The 22-year-old is yet to start a Premier League game for his new manager, limited instead to brief cameos from the bench.
With the European vultures apparently circling, Blues fans feared they could be saying farewell to their American attacker before too long.
Pulisic has struggled to rediscover his post-lockdown form of last season.
Between June and July, he directly contributed to eight goals in nine league matches.
From September onwards of this campaign, he has scored just twice and assisted another in 25 appearances.
Many assumed that Tuchel’s arrival would reignite Pulisic’s flame, drawing upon their relationship forged at Borussia Dortmund.
Instead, the German coach seems to have extinguished it.
After leaving him out of the Everton fixture, Tuchel explained after his sides victory that Pulisic’s problem was ‘I know from Dortmund how strong he is from the bench’ (HaytersTV).
This ‘strength’ has seemingly back-fired on Chelsea’s No 10, who probably feels more like an unlucky 13 at the moment.
It would be a huge reversal from the club if they decided to sell on a player who they bought for £58m (BBC Sport) just over two years ago.
But football is a ruthless business, so nothing can be ruled out.
The Chelsea Chronicle View
There are plenty of levels to why this would be a bad move for Pulisic.
One: he will get a chance under Tuchel, everyone has.
Two: why would you sell to a rival club?
Three: will he get significantly more time at Liverpool, Bayern, or United than he is at Chelsea?