Christian Pulisic has taken another step towards leaving Chelsea this summer. The American is widely expected to join the raft of players exiting Stamford Bridge, following the decisions taken by Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
After Mauricio Pochettino officially started work with the club, Pulisic is first spending time away following an extended international calendar in which he helped lead USMNT to the CONCACAF Nations League, scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Mexico in the semi-final before captaining the side in the 2-0 final victory over Canada.
He has since left the camp with BJ Callaghan's group now made up of less experienced names for the Gold Cup campaign. With Chelsea due to start their pre-season tour of America in two weeks, Pulisic is in limbo over whether or not he will be part of travelling squad.
Pochettino is continuing his mass exodus of players from last season's team in a bid to cut down on numbers, wages and ageing stars. With just one year left on his contract, Pulisic looks set to join those departing from Chelsea and has now agreed terms with AC Milan over a move, according to ESPN.
The Italian side showed interest in Pulisic last year both as part of a temporary and permanent deal whilst Chelsea also offered him in a player-plus-cash bid for Rafael Leao. Progress towards finalising a deal this year has now been made ahead of Pulisic's return to London, with terms not a problem.
Chelsea, though, are yet to land an agreement with the Rossoneri and are attempting to find a middle ground over a transfer fee. It is said that negotiations are centred around an asking price of £21.4million ($27.3m), but Milan are only wishing to pay less than £15million ($19m).
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After signing the player for £54million ($68m) in 2019, Chelsea would only need to bank £12million ($15.2m) to come out in profit on the books after having four years of service. However, for a 24-year-old with over six years of Champions League experience, mass marketability as one of the standout American players and his best years still to come, they do not want to be sold short.
Having received £65million ($82.5m) for Havertz, a player with comparable career output and of the same age, it demonstrates the market that is there for attacking players. Serie A is strapped for money, though, and may well prove much tougher to sell players too, especially with just 12 months left on his contract.
Newcastle's signing of Sandro Tonali from Milan has also given the Italian side a major monetary boost which Chelsea are keen to use as a way to generate their own funds from the deal.
Whilst the two sides continue to talk over finances, Pulisic is delivering on his promise of spending time away from the game before a vital summer for his career. "When the time comes I need to also rest after this, get away from the game a bit and enjoy my break, see my family and all those kinds of things," he said whilst on duty with USMNT.
"Once it's time to make decisions and see what options I have then I'll deal with it, until then I'm just focused here."
His work has now been done for the 2022/23 season and attention will slowly start to shift back towards football in the coming week but for now he is enjoying leisure time outside of the footballing bubble. In a video posted of him on a jet ski with his friends he has responded with a message: "In Bobby we trust [pray emoji, laughing emoji]."
With the post saying: "Captain America giving Bobby the nod behind the wheel of the jet ski couldn't of been the best career decsiion. The boys were humming though," Pulisic appears to have his mind on everything other than Chelsea and for now that may be the best course of action.
