Pulisic was already your player before you were banned from making signings. Kovacic was registered as a Chelsea player so you could extend his stay by activating a buy-out clause.
Apparently the transfer ban only applied to players who they wanted to bring in, but loan players were exempt, so they were able to buy him. There wasn't an 'option to buy' though, and Chelsea had to negotiate directly with Real over the transfer.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/17/chel...-following-ruben-loftus-cheek-injury-9592746/


