A new wrinkle in the Christian Pulisic and Thomas Tuchel saga at Chelsea is emerging from football’s transfer king.

Living, breathing transfer portal Fabrizio Romano says Newcastle was ‘obsessed’ with signing Pulisic, but Chelsea wouldn’t let him go.

In a new interview with the Que Golazo! podcast, Romano claims the USMNT star could’ve left London over the summer were it not for Todd Boehly’s change in loan tactics.

“[There was] strong interest from Newcastle. Newcastle was obsessed with Christian. They wanted him. But they wanted him on loan – not on a permanent deal. They wanted him on loan, maybe with a buy option, but not mandatory. And that is why Chelsea decided to say no.

Chelsea, at the beginning of the market, were open to accept that kind of deal – for example, with Lukaku, they accepted a loan deal with even a buy option included with Inter. Then, in July and August, they changed their position – Todd Boehly, especially, changed his position – and he wanted to allow his players to leave only if there was a permanent deal proposal. And this was the case for Pulisic, for Ziyech, for many others that were not super important players for Chelsea. But he did not want to accept loan deals. So this is why, with Newcastle, nothing happened.” 

Romano also touched on Pulisic transfer rumors involving Manchester United, CP10’s favorite childhood club. Man U was interested in the American, but a Brazilian was always their primary target.

“Man United were thinking about him as one of the options but was never something close because Antony was the main priority, so [Pulisic] was just one of the names on the list but never nothing close.”

Pulisic’s comments on Tuchel in his upcoming autobiography, Pulisic: My Journey So Far, sparked controversy this week as Captain America claims ignoring his former coach helped him score one of his most legendary goals.

Pulisic had been out-of-favor with the German manager for most of the last year, frustrating Puli and USMNT fans alike. 

Fabrizio Romano says Pulisic deserves more playing time at Chelsea and hopes the American will get it under new HC Graham Potter.

“And so, in the end, he stayed with Chelsea, and I hope now with Potter the situation will be fine because he needs to play, he deserves to play, he deserves an opportunity at Chelsea, and we will see.”

Check out the full clip above – Romano speaks on Pulisic at the 19-minute mark.

Featured Image: Pexels/cottonbro/ChelseaFC/NewcastleUnitedFC/DM