Eden Hazard Not on List of Chelsea Stars Christian Pulisic Excited to Play with

Incoming Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic name-dropped several future team-mates he's "excited" to play with, including N'Golo Kante, David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger, but he fuelled exit speculation for Eden Hazard by leaving him out. 

Per ESPN FC's Liam Twomey, the American gave his first official interview as a member of the Blues, and he didn't talk abut the club's biggest current star:

"There are so many great players here already, and I can't wait to work with them all.

"I'm excited to play alongside N'Golo Kante. I think he's a fantastic player, and I can't wait to meet him. Also there's the guys in the back line, players like David Luiz and Rudiger, I'm looking forward to working with them, and I think it's going to be really cool."

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

According to Twomey and Julien Laurens, Hazard has told the club he wants his dream move to Real Madrid finalised as soon as possible.

Per Kristof Terreur of HLN, he spoke about signing a new contract with the club on Sunday, but French daily L'Equipe reported the two clubs have reached a deal a day later:

The 28-year-old has been among the Premier League's top attacking weapons since he made the switch to Stamford Bridge in 2012, and he put together another sterling campaign in 2018-19.

Hazard scored 16 goals and added 15 assists in the Premier League, with the latter figure good enough to land him some silverware:

He's been linked with Spanish giants Real for some time, however, and has never side-stepped the speculation. He admitted he wanted to leave Chelsea after last year's World Cup, per France Football (h/t Sky Sports), and expressed his admiration for Blancos manager Zinedine Zidane in April, per RMC Sport (h/t Goal).

Chelsea moved for Pulisic in January, and spent £57.6 million on the inexperienced American. Like Hazard, the 20-year-old is a versatile winger who can play on both flanks, and he could be a long-term replacement for the Belgian.

While he didn't have a fantastic 2018-19 campaign, bagging just four goals and three assists in the Bundesliga, he has finished strongly, with goals in back-to-back outings against Werder Bremen and Fortuna Dusseldorf.

The latter contest was his final one at the Signal Iduna Park as a BVB player:

Football pundit Guillem Balague believes the U.S. international might be a better fit for manager Maurizio Sarri, as he can still be "moulded" as a player:

Per Matt Law of the Telegraph, it's not yet clear whether the Blues will be able to sign players this summer, as FIFA refused to freeze the club's transfer ban after an appeal, and the case will now likely go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The uncertainty adds another layer to the Hazard transfer saga, which will be one of the main talking points in all of football this summer.