With a deal for Barcelona winger Pedro looking like it is nearly completed, we thought we would take a look and see what the 27-year-old Spanish international is bringing with him to Old Trafford.
Pedro is a Canary Islander, a big star back in Tenerife, and yet despite his success on the world stage has been reduced to playing a bit role at Barcelona, due to the fact trainer Luis Enrique has world class stars in Louis Suarez, Lionel Messi add Brazilian sensation Neymar that he is going to select first before even considering Pedro.
Pedro even admitted as much himself back in March saying:”It’s been a difficult time”.
A huge concession for a man that can say he has won it all before even celebrating his 25th birthday, while also becoming the first player to have ever scored in, and won six competitions back in 2009.
“If he leaves, he’ll have eternal admiration,” wrote Joan Vehils of Barcelona-based newspaper Sport. “The shame is that in front of him are the three best forwards in the world.”
This view indicates that Pedro still has a lot to offer to the right club, with Messi in particular going to miss him at the Nou Camp, where despite only making a limited appearance he was the only player to provide the Argentinian magician with more assists for his 43 La Liga goals last season than Luis Suarez, a long running partnership that has seen Pedro directly involved with the man from Rosario than any other player on the Barcelona team.
Yet despite all the facts and figures that speak for themselves, Pedro has found his playing time becoming less and less, with his on field tally of 1529 playing minutes the lowest he has seen since becoming a La Liga regular.
Former trainer Pep Guardiola once said this of the Spanish international: “If Pedro was Brazilian, he’d be called Pedrinho and we wouldn’t have enough money to afford him”, and while that line remains a famous quote, another from Guardiola sums the player up perfectly. “He does a lot of things and he does them well.”
Guardiola is not alone in his view of how important Pedro has been, with Ariedo Braida, Barca’s sporting director, recently referred to Pedro as “incredibly important” while club icon Johan Cruyff identified him as a player with “a lot of value” to Barcelona due to his work rate.
It comes as no surprise that now another Dutchman Louis van Gaal is looking at Pedro to provide speed down the wings to add to the team he is putting together at Old Trafford.
“Young has had a fantastic season,” Van Gaal reiterated this week. “Mata the same, with assists and goals but to win the Champions League we need speed also. That is why I think, maybe, we still have to buy a player with speed and creativity.”
You would have thought that van Gaal would have had all these qualities in Angel Di Maria, yet the players off-field problems and his unpedicability on the pitch is at odds with the predicability that LVG requires from his players.
In this at least Pedro and his pace is predictable, with his off the ball runs opening up opportuinties for others which is in essence the van Gaal way.
To sum it up simply, should manchester United sign Pedro the would not just be buying a world class player, but more goals and more assists, and while he might not be a Messi or a Neymar he is a player who will make the players you already have appear better.