Chelsea Going, going, gone! That was the feeling for Manchester United fans but not in the best way as one of their targets for the season, Pedro from Barcelona ended up going to a Premier League club after all, but it was Chelsea and not United who confirmed the deal. The Blues came out of the blue, excuse the pun, to sign the talented winger from Barcelona for a price which is rumoured to be around £22 million, this would certainly help Chelsea in the long run as they have looked bereft of fresh ideas this season and the signing of the winger could be the turning point for the team.
Spanish winger flying high, Juan Cuadrado goodbye?
This wouldn’t be the first time Chelsea have splashed the cash for a top winger in recent years, Marko Marin, Kevin de Bruyne and Juan Cuadrado, most recently have fallen foul to the curse of Chelsea. These top attackers ended up signing for the giants but didn’t have the start to their career that they would have hoped for in England, Chelsea have been able to ship out a few players but some are still rutting about in their convoluted and confusing loan system, case being that of Marin.
Pedro would have joined Chelsea knowing full well that he would be getting a lot more chances to play for the Blues. He wasn’t getting the game time at Barcelona due to the magnificent triad of Neymar, Suarez and Messi, it would be very difficult for anyone to get into that attack, let alone become a regular in that team.
Pedro is effective playing down the wings, there really is no other position where he could provide that much as he does when playing on either side of the striker. While he is known for his ability to provide passes and assists to the strikers, we must all remember that he does have a great scoring record for Barcelona.
When he first broke into the Barcelona team, he scored 45 goals in 105 appearances between 2009 and 2011, at almost a goal every other game, he was one of the reasons why Barcelona did the treble in the 2009 season. Pedro was one of the goto guys for Barcelona back then but his scoring was drastically reduced in the seasons after 2011, probably due to Messi doing the bulk of scoring and probably due to him playing a wider role and not cutting in enough like he did earlier.
He could play as a striker for Chelsea, but that would be like fitting a square peg in a round hole, Chelsea needed someone to take the pressure off Eden Hazard in terms of creativity and Pedro is the man to do it. The big questions that surely are on everyone’s minds are: Would Jose be willing to drop Willian? And would Pedro be a hit at Chelsea or a flop like a few others? Only time will tell but for now, Chelsea have pulled a rabbit out of the bag, hopefully the rabbit can produce some magic for the Blues.