Manchester United transfer news: Man Utd consider Christian Pulisic move

Deal unlikely  

Manchester United could turn their attention towards Chelsea and United States winger Christian Pulisic in a bid to provide more options for under-pressure manager Erik ten Hag. According to the Athletic, the Old Trafford side have joined a list of clubs that includes Newcastle, Juventus and Atlético Madrid and now wish to loan the 23-year-old forward from their Premier League rivals. 

Update Aug. 22: According to Sky Germany, it is now unlikely that Man United will sign Christian Pulisic. Instead, the Red Devils will focus on signing Brazilian winger Antony. 

Pulisic became the most expensive USMNT player of all time in 2019, when he made the move to Stamford Bridge from Borussia Dortmund for a reported transfer fee of £58 million (€60m) but has since struggled to nail down a regular starting role at Chelsea. Despite impressing under successive managers, Pulisic’s injury record has routinely got in the way of him making progress at the London club. Since joining the club, the winger has missed no less than 44 games in all competitions through injury. 

Despite that, the young forward still proves to be an enticing prospect for a number of clubs due to his talents on the pitch. And, for a club like Man Utd that have struggled to score goals and continue to depend on inconsistent wide players like Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, Pulisic could provide some much-needed firepower in attack. However, that depends on whether Chelsea will allow the player to move to a league rival. 

Lack of game time may force Pulisic’s hand 

According to the aforementioned report from the Athletic, Pulisic may push for such a move due to his desire to pick up game time ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar this winter. And it’s certainly not hard to sympathise with the player’s urge to get back on the pitch and show what he can do. Despite joining the club as a first team star, Pulisic has spent the past three seasons struggling for game time. In his first season at the club, the USMNT winger only managed 1,727 minutes of league football, which was more or less repeated the following year with 1,735 minutes and then dropped to 1,285. In total, the young forward has only played around 50% of the potential game time available to him in the Premier League since joining the club. 

That, naturally, has had an adverse impact on the player’s standing and market value. After reaching a high of €60m in 2019 after his move from Dortmund, Pulisic’s value dropped to €50m by the end of the 2020/21 season and has fallen further since to where it now stands at €42m today. And unless he can either get back into Thomas Tuchel’s starting XI or push for a move to a club like Man Utd, the player’s fortunes may continue to fall. 

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