Borussia Dortmund rule out January transfer for Chelsea-bound Christian Pulisic

The international break is always ripe for increasing speculation and extra transfer rumor silliness, especially the last one before the January transfer window, and it’s proving no different this time around either.

The biggest story, as far as Chelsea are concerned, is the Martin Samuel exclusive in the Daily Mail that the Blues have “won the battle” for the 20-year-old Pulisic, who’s now “set” and “on the verge” of a move that could be worth up to £70m. To make things even more exciting, Samuel’s report even suggests that Chelsea will push for the deal to be done this January, just in case FIFA decide to impose a transfer ban as a result of their latest slow-moving investigation of various top tier teams around Europe regarding the transfers of under-18 players.

Chelsea could of course appeal any judgement and thus likely delay any potential ban — standard procedure, really — a January push could also allow the Blues to get a jump on our rivals in the race for Pulisic (at the cost of a higher fee, probably). Liverpool especially are said to be eyeing the kid who was signed by BVB when Jürgen Klopp was still in charge there (though it was Thomas Tuchel who gave Pulisic his debut a year later).

But while Dortmund may be resigned to losing Pulisic, as they have been since contract negotiations broke down over the summer, they are not willing to do so until the end of the season. Sporting director Michael Zorc has made that clear before, and has reiterated it again after this weekend’s rumor explosion.

“We are planning with him at least until the end of the season. We will need Christian significantly.”

-Michael Zorc; source: kicker via ESPN

Fair enough.

This doesn’t really change the situation as far as I’m concerned. A January transfer always sounded just a bit too good to be true. We’ll see you in the summer then, Christian ... he said hopefully.