Chelsea have completed the signing of Pedro from Barcelona after beating Manchester United in a deal worth up to £21.1m.
Despite United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward flying to Barcelona on Monday 17 august, 2015 to try and finalise terms on the deal, Pedro changed his mind and opted for Chelsea.
Chelsea football club released a statement on their latest acquisition; “Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Pedro from Barcelona.
Welcome to Chelsea, @_Pedro17_! #CFC pic.twitter.com/UGc6yYBQsx
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 20, 2015
A Barcelona statement read: “The club wishes to publicly express its gratitude to Pedro Rodriguez for his professionalism and dedication while with the club, as well as to wish him all the best in the future.”
Manchester United appeared to be in pole position to land the player who was identified as Angel Di Maria’s replacement but Chelsea hijacked the deal and signed him up. The 28-year old Spaniard signed a new contract with Barcelona in June but failed to dislodge any of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez in the first team which prompted him to move. Pedro used Twitter to thank his former club for helping him complete a transfer to the reigning Premier League champions
Very happy, I’m already Blue! Thank U all and specially @FCBarcelona for make possible to reach this point @ChelseaFC pic.twitter.com/fgERbDXLcJ — Pedro Rodríguez (@_Pedro17_) August 20, 2015
The stats show that Pedro will add a spark and improve Chelsea’s forward line when compared to Oscar and Willian.
Stats show Pedro will add required spark to @ChelseaFC attack http://t.co/RRRarRYEd6 #Pedro pic.twitter.com/DJtxXSJrDc
— The Sport Review (@TheSportReview) August 20, 2015
Former team-mate Thierry Henry described Pedro as the perfect professional and believes he will adapt to the demands of the Premier League. “The perfect team-mate, the perfect professional – he is that guy,” Henry told Sky Sports. “He can adapt to the English system, he won’t have to learn, he will understand staying wide, putting pressure and all that type of thing from the front and the first time I saw him he was already on point. “He knows the system so he looked like he was playing for us forever when he first played.”
.@_Pedro17_ has joined the #CFC squad at Cobham for his first training session this afternoon http://t.co/kj1qyVnXlchttps://t.co/r7ctaDwTaW — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 20, 2015
Like Rahman, Pedro could make his debut in English football this weekend as Mourinho’s side play West Brom on 23 August.