Like the English and Catalan papers report today, the sports world is buzzing with plenty of detail about how Chelsea hijacked Pedro’s move to Manchester United.
The Spanish international had sought a move from Barcelona, where his opportunities have been limited by the dazzling performance of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
Despite the fact that Mourinho had rejected the chance to sign him in January, Pedro was delighted when Chelsea revived their interest. He was said to have been unconvinced about a move to Old Trafford, perhaps detecting Van Gaal’s doubts about his suitability.
United’s take on the matter on Wednesday night was that they withdrew from the deal on Tuesday when the manager decided he didn’t want the Barcelona player after all. Hmmm!
It seemed a strange explanation, given chief executive Ed Woodward had been in Catalonia as recently as Monday, but Van Gaal has always had reservations about Pedro, as reported in Sportsmail.
According to new reports, Chelsea’s dramatic swoop to sign Pedro was masterminded by manager Jose Mourinho, director Marina Granovskaia, Cesc Fabregas and the midfielder’s girlfriend,Carolina Martin. In this piece, we reveal the reasons why Pedro joined Chelsea over Manchester United, despite the latter seemingly chasing his signature for weeks now.
First, we believe Manchester United delayed in their approach to sign the 28-year-old. This attitude must have convinced the Barcelona forward to join Chelsea, once they made their move on Tuesday.
The main actor behind the transfer coup is Roman Abramovich’s right hand woman, Marina Granovskaia. She has been credited with swiftly securing the Pedro move, for a fee of 28 million euros, plus two in incentives.
It is alleged that he turned his back on a move to Manchester United after reportedly being warned about Louis van Gaal’s tough style of management.
Further revelations reveal that both Jose Mourinho and Cesc Fabregas spoke with Pedro to convince him to sign on at Stamford Bridge. In addition, Cesc’s wife Daniela Seeman’s spoke with Pedro’s other half, Carolina Martin to convince her partner to move to London.
Finally, El Mundo Deportivo add that Pedro and his family preferred to live in London rather than Manchester.
Since Chelsea paid Pedro’s release clause, Barcelona were keen to accept and avoid any tax issues, a fact Manchester United negotiator Ed Woodward did not seem to understand as well.
Now that Pedro has passed his medical at Chelsea and the final negotiations centre on the length of his contract at Stamford Bridge, likely to be three years plus one depending on variables, Mourinho will hope the 5ft 5in forward can inject the required pace, urgency and goals into a team who have opened the season in sluggish style, taking one point from two games.