After
Pedro's surprise move to Chelsea, Sky Sports News HQ reporter James Cooper
gives us the inside line on how the transfer was seen at Manchester United.
In the wake of losing one of the world's quickest and most creative players
in Angel Di Maria, Louis van Gaal has been quick to make the point that
these are the attributes that will fit most easily into the Manchester
United DNA he's trying to create.
Pedro is one such player, perhaps something of a 'Di Maria-lite', and it's
those qualities that put him on the Old Trafford radar.
However, it's been my understanding for many weeks that while he was
considered as an option, there was never a feverish ambition to bring him to
the club - especially as his £21.4m buy-out clause made it a simple task to
extract him from Barcelona.
If Van Gaal had identified Pedro as a key player for his future plans, he
would have tried far harder to get the deal done earlier in the summer so
that he was incorporated into the pre-season regime.
There don't seem to be too many regrets at United that Pedro has ended up at
Chelsea and there are other options they're looking at, including
Southampton forward Sadio Mane.
But while United will move on from here, there's also a recognition that
some of the chatter coming from players who are disillusioned with Van Gaal
- such as Victor Valdes and David de Gea - may not have helped on this
particular occasion.
Ultimately, though, what the club are telling us is that it was Van Gaal
himself who pulled the plug on Pedro, with no guarantees that there will be
further signings this summer.
From one point of view it has been a perfect start to 'phase two' of the
Dutchman's stint at Old Trafford with three wins out of three, but many fans
are still perplexed that, with around £240m already spent and key players no
longer at the club, there doesn't seem to be much desire to bring in a
centre-forward or centre-back this summer.
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