Why Newcastle United’s pursuit of João Pedro was doomed from the start as Brazilian looks set to join Chelsea…
Last night, the news broke that Chelsea had won the race to sign João Pedro from Brighton and Hove Albion, leaving Newcastle United having to look elsewhere.
Newcastle have held a long-standing interest in the versatile Brazilian forward and were contemplating a move for him while he was at Watford before he joined Brighton.
After a training ground bust-up with Jan Paul van Hecke, it seemed like the right time to move for Joao Pedro to get him away from what could be an awkward environment, and things were looking good for a while.
However, as soon as Supermarket Sweep FC entered the race, it was curtains for Newcastle, and in truth, their involvement should have been Newcastle’s cue to just walk away.
João Pedro only ever had eyes for Chelsea
In this case, it wasn’t about money as Newcastle seemed prepared to meet Brighton’s £60 million valuation, but it was more about location, with Igor Julio telling reporters that João Pedro had often spoken about moving to London, so as soon as Chelsea entered the race, the writing was on the wall.
The Athletic even said as much in their story covering Pedro’s move to Chelsea, saying: “The 23-year-old Brazilian was targeted by Chelsea and Newcastle United, but he only wanted to join the west London side.”
Sometimes that London myth is true, it seems. Now Newcastle have to move on to other targets, but we aren’t sure where they’ll turn their attention next. We expect they’ll accelerate their move for Anthony Elanga, but that still leaves a gap at centre-forward that needs filling.
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Are you bothered that NUFC missed out on João Pedro?
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Only because it was to Supermarket Sweep FC
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Newcastle are masters of transfer misdirection.
It is always worth keeping in mind that Newcastle are experts at misdirection. It has been so long since we actually signed anyone that it’s easy to forget, but quite often while the media are focusing on one player, Newcastle are wrapping up a deal for another.
We were all convinced Newcastle were going for James Maddison before Harvey Barnes signed, and that we wanted Nicolo Barella when in fact we were doing a deal for Sandro Tonali.
Missing out on Pedro may not be the disaster we all think it is right now; we’ll just have to see what the future holds. Tomorrow, the new PSR reporting cycle begins, and that’s when we expect to see our transfer activity go up another gear.
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