Chelsea want Milan to raise their offer for Christian Pulisic after the Italian side made a second bid worth up to £18.9m for the American winger.
Milan have had a bid of £12m rejected for Pulisic, who is expected to leave Stamford Bridge this summer, and negotiations between the clubs are ongoing. Although Lyon’s bid of £21.5m comes closer to meeting Chelsea’s valuation of the USA captain, the player’s preference is to move to San Siro.
Chelsea and Milan have grown to know each other well in recent years and have developed a good relationship. Milan bought Ruben Loftus-Cheek from Chelsea for an initial £15m last month, having signed Olivier Giroud, Tiémoué Bakayoko and Fikayo Tomori from the Stamford Bridge club.
Stefano Pioli’s side have qualified for the Champions League and are keen to make more signings. Pulisic has undoubted talent, though he has struggled to show it during his four seasons at Chelsea. The 24-year-old joined Chelsea from Borussia Dortmund for £58m in 2019 and has largely been inconsistent. Pulisic helped Chelsea win the Champions League in 2021 but injuries have held him back and he made only 25 appearances last season.
Capable of playing on both flanks and through the middle, Pulisic is ready for a fresh start. He has a year left on his contract and Chelsea, who are conducting a major clearout, want to sell him. Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea’s new head coach, does not want to keep players who are not committed to the club.
Chelsea have raised around £200m through sales this summer and more players are expected to leave. César Azpilicueta, Trevoh Chalobah, Romelu Lukaku, Marc Cucurella, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hakim Ziyech could depart.
However, Chelsea have no intention of selling their young centre-back Levi Colwill, and want to give the Brighton target a new long-term deal. Colwill wants to know if he will play regularly and will hold talks with Pochettino before making a decision on his future.
