The last of Christian Pulisic at Chelsea is nigh. It has already, in all likelihood, happened. He has played his last game, had a downbeat farewell that never really existed and he has participated in his last pre-season tour.
No longer will he act as a pawn of some commercial American marketing dream while wondering the grand stands of Chicago or North Carolina. There is genuine quesiton as to whether he will even return to the club's training base in Cobham.
With Mauricio Pochettino's arrival on Monday acting as the start of something new, a manager with serious aura dressed in all-black on a sunny Surrey day, Pulisic's place at Chelsea is in line with that of Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the rest of the outcasts.
'Here is something new, you do not fit it, we all know such is true. Thank you and goodbye'. For Pulisic it is the best-case scenario. He admitted that a state of footballing purgatory had taken over from Premier League stadia as his weekly destinations when playing for his country last month.
"Obviously, it's been an interesting journey at club level for me. I thought it was a great couple years and the last couple years just haven't gone at all how I've planned them to be," he said. There it is. Then the last couple of years happened and this promising golden boy got sucked into the lifeless bowl that Chelsea has become.
Hardly his fault, just another wasted piece in the attacking jigsaw collapse at Stamford Bridge. That time is up, though. With 12 months left on his contract he is going to be sold and the good news is that there are no shortage of buyers in this game.
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Here is the most attractive and popular American player, perhaps ever, and he's got serious talent. Pulisic plays like a character that knows his place within the USMNT set-up and Chelsea could not hand him those circumstances. Other European sides could, and they're willing to pay to give it a go.
The other good piece of news here is that the businessman-like owners have good relationships with teams that are queuing up and now battling to sign him. Every team claims to want a bidding war for their star player every season, Chelsea didn't ask for such when it came to Pulisic, both parties just wanted an ammicable and swift resolution.
Now, with AC Milan and Lyon both competing to sign him, Chelsea have a dream situation, Pulisic also has his pick. Milan are on the back foot having just signed Loftus-Cheek for a deal rising to £18 million ($22.8m). Given Pulisic is younger, more exciting and a bigger personal brand, the expectation of receiving a larger fee surely exists.
The Italian side have also just sold midfield star Sandro Tonali for a generous £60m ($76m) to Newcastle and even with financial pressure coming from all sides in Serie A, they cannot claim to be cash strapped when it comes to Pulisic. It is said that San Siro is the end goal for Pulisic. With Champions League football and a greater established history, they are a perfect new challenge.
However, their initial offer of £12m ($15.3m) is below Chelsea's value. That stands at closer to £20m ($25.4m) despite knowing that anything over Milan's verbal proposal would represent a profit on the books with just one year left of his inital five-year contract. After coming to agreements of the sale of Loftus-Cheek, Fikayo Tomori and Olivier Giroud in recent windows, relations are good.
Lyon have taken a more direct approach, though, with a closer bid worth a reported £19m ($25m) plus a negotiated and sizeable sell-on fee. Like with Milan, lines of communication are open and positive between the clubs after Malo Gusto moved the other way to west London in January.
Chelsea included a six-month loan back to France for Gusto to sweaten that deal and they may well bear the fruits of such a tactic as the Ligue 1 outfit move into pole position. They have got two teams battling it out with offers for a player they both see as hugely important to summer plans and for a middling price.
Considering Pulisic made his Champions League debut seven years ago it is remarkable that a player of his experience and unquestioned talent is in a position to move across Europe for such a small fee, in proportion to other business being done.
For now, though, there is no room to be picky and Pulisic's exit looks to be a formality one way or the other.
