Hakim Ziyech holds positive Ajax transfer talks as Christian Pulisic's dad 'likes' tweet criticising Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel

Hakim Ziyech flew to the Netherlands to hold talks with Ajax over a potential summer transfer on Sunday evening, while Christian Pulisic’s dad's latest social media activity criticised Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel.

The 29-year-old, who only joined from Ajax two years ago after signing a five-year contract with Chelsea, was brought on in the second half of their 3-0 defeat at Leeds United as the Blues fell to their first defeat of the season of the 2022/23 Premier League season. 

Ziyech is an outcast at Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel and his future has been unclear all summer, with AC Milan cooling their interest, and clubs have been monitoring the Moroccan’s situation. 

One possible destination for the winger is his former club Ajax. He flew back to Amsterdam for a meeting with Ajax straight after the defeat to Leeds, as per reports from Gerjan Hamstelaar.

Now it has been reported how the meeting went, which is said to have gone well. Ziyech wants to return to Ajax and personal terms won’t be an issue. 

However, his future all depends on current Ajax star Antony, who has been linked with a switch to Manchester United - Erik ten Hag’s side have already had bids rejected. 

Ajax boss Alfred Schreuder wants Antony to stay, telling the media: "I want Antony to stay at Ajax, and I believe he has to stay at Ajax. We already sold five or six starting players and it would not be acceptable if would sell another one. I am not the one deciding whether he will get sold or not, but I do have an opinion."

With Ziyech’s future uncertain, another Chelsea player who has been linked with a move away, including to Man United, is Christian Pulisic. His game-time has become limited under Tuchel, with Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz seemingly preferred in attack. 

The 23-year-old has played in all three of their league games this term, but he has come off the bench in all of them. 

His father, Mark, took to Twitter after the defeat to Leeds and ‘liked’ three posts before deleting them following eagle-eyed users spotting his activity. 

The tweets questioned Tuchel, calling him a ‘destroyer of the players’ while hinting that his son needs to leave if he doesn’t start against West Ham with Havertz and Mount preferred. 

With just under two weeks of the transfer window to go, Tuchel sent Pulisic a message over his future, as well as Callum Hudson-Odoi, both of whom have been speculated with Stamford Bridge exits.

The Chelsea boss said: “I know there are a lot of talks. We will also not comment on our players. 

“We will not encourage our players to go out in the moment.

"We had now two training sessions with 18 players. In a schedule where we play once a week it is not a problem. If I look a little bit, the chin up a little bit and look at the schedule that is coming with Southampton during the week and two Champions League matches, it’s coming. It’s in front of the door. 

“We will need a lot of players and quality players to be competitive. At the moment, like I said, we have what we have.

"We know what we’re looking for. From there we go and only from there we can think about letting players go.”