Borussia Dortmund have signalled they are willing to sell Christian Pulisic at the end of the current season and the belief is Chelsea and Liverpool are favourites to sign the American rising star, with Manchester United also interested.
Today, London’s Evening Standard claim that Chelsea have made the first move, lodging an official offer for the 20-year-old attacker. For Chelsea, though, there are two issues. First is that Dortmund were unimpressed by the fee offered.
Second, and perhaps more importantly when trying to figure out how this will all end, is that Pulisic is said to prefer a Liverpool move. That will be good news for Reds fans—and for the club if they intend to get into the bidding for Pulisic.
According to previous reports as well as today’s Standard claim of an opening Chelsea bid is that Dortmund have set the price for Pulisic at £70m and that any deal would need to let the player finish out the current season in the Bundesliga.
It’s a high price to ask for a player who will have just a year left to run in his Dortmund deal next summer, especially when set next to the fees Liverpool paid for Naby Keïta and were willing to pay for Nabil Fekir before that deal fell through.
The good news, if Liverpool are interested, is that at least Chelsea don’t appear to be close to it with their initial bid. Dortmund won’t have expected whichever club moved for him first to be, though—they will have been looking for a bidding war.
And if Liverpool do move for him now, they just might get it, though the player’s reported preference to join Liverpool and reunite with manager Jürgen Klopp could give the Reds a major edge and could even help to keep the fee down.