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Posted: August 19th, 2015 10:36 am Subscribe via RSS SOCCER Subscribe via RSS ONE WORLD SPORTS
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HOW CHELSEA STOLE PEDRO FROM MAN UNITED
An aggressive overnight intervention enabled Chelsea to usurp two Premier League title rivals in the pursuit of Spain forward Pedro. On Tuesday evening, Chelsea director Marina Granavoskaia presented Barcelona with a formal offer of €28million plus €2m in performance-related variables. The same night, Jose Mourinho contacted Pedro to assure him of his importance to the Chelsea manager's plans for the season.
Chelsea's financial proposal trumped terms that Manchester United had established with Barcelona earlier in the month. According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the Catalan club also accepted Chelsea's offer ahead of a verbal proposal lodged by Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain.
Though Ed Woodward spent part of Tuesday attempting to formalize the schedule of payments on a deal that would commit United to a guaranteed fee of €26m, going as far as presenting an official offer to Barca, Chelsea's intervention reshaped the playing field.
Some lessons learned from past negotiations, Woodward had already agreed to personal terms with the Spain international, with Louis van Gaal's promise of a starting position on the right side of a reshaped attack convincing Pedro that Old Trafford was the right place to further an already trophy-laden career. Though the player was aware of City's interest as the transfer window entered its final fortnight, Pedro was clear that he preferred to join United.
His camp initially expected the transfer to be formalized in the first week of August, only for Woodward to postpone a trip to Barcelona to attend to other business. As late as Tuesday afternoon, they remained hopeful that United could satisfy Barca's new demands that the forward's €30m release clause be met and complete the move today, or at the latest, next week.
As United faced FC Brugge in a critical Champions League qualifier at Old Trafford, Barca informed Pedro that a more attractive offer had arrived from Chelsea, and that the London club had sought permission to negotiate a salary. The player's representatives asked to be given time to discuss the situation and immediately attempted to contact United without success.
Contact was eventually made after United concluded their late 3-1 victory over Brugge. Woodward consulted with Van Gaal, who is understood to have advised his club's executive vice-chairman not to improve the transfer fee. Instead, Van Gaal suggested that it was Pedro's responsibility to apply pressure to a club at which the 28-year-old has spent his entire professional career, and, if he was not prepared to do so, that he could go elsewhere.
That provoked a conversation between Pedro's agents and Chelsea in which the London club agreed to match the salary package previously negotiated with United. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Chelsea provided tickets for Pedro to fly to London to formalize the transfer.
It did not take long for Pedro to make a final decision. Sources in Barcelona say that there had been preliminary interest from Chelsea early in the summer window, and at that point a move to a serious Champions League contender coupled with the prospect of living in the capital was of great appeal. When Chelsea's early overtures failed to crystallize, however, he committed himself to joining United. Yet their hesitation in completing the transfer became a source of increasing frustration; the self-effacing Pedro left fielding persistent questions about his Camp Nou future.
That a club as reputedly cash rich as United permitted a deal to go south over what amounts to little more than the scheduling of payments is instructive. Some close to Pedro suspect the Spaniard may never have been United's first choice for the position, and that their vacillation hid parallel attempts to secure an alternative target.
On Wednesday it emerged that Woodward was exploring the possibility of recruiting Sadio Mane from Southampton, with discussions ongoing for at least a week. The brutally fast Senegal international delivered 10 goals in his first Premier League season and offers some of the chance creating pace Van Gaal admits his squad requires. Whether Mane can prove better value than Pedro remains to be seen.
http://www.oneworldsports.com/stories/how-chelsea-stole-pedro-man-utd
