Chelsea coach, Jose Mourinho stated earlier in the week while being quizzed by a British tabloid that the club is willing to sign a defender during the summer in order to bolster his squad and finish a certain balance before the new season kicks in. When further asked about a certain series of speculations regarding the club’s bid for Barcelona foward Pedro,he replied “I have five wingers, If I lose one maybe I am interested in another but at this moment I have balance and quality and numbers”
With this revelation by the ‘special one’ that Pedro is not a target,it has seemingly carved out an opening for the 27 year old winger to complete a move to Manchester United during the summer transfer window. There has been heavy links with regards to a possible move of the winger to the English heavywiehts suggesting a formal bid to be made in the coming days.
Barcelona tactician, Luis Enrique has stated that despite his desire for Pedro to stay beyond the summer at the Spanish giants,he will not stand in his way if he wants to leave. Looking to add substance to that assertion, it has been reported that the wingers buy out clause of €150m was reduced significantly to €30m earlier in the summer.
Also,this opens the possibility of the signing of Atletico Madrid’s free scoring winger in Antoine Griezmann by Mourinho. He has also been a constant link to the English champions and would make a significant addition to the squad judging by his versatility of playing on either flanks and through the middle banging in goals in the process. Chelsea are understood to have made a swap deal offer involving Brazilian left back, Felipé Luis whom was signed from Atleti last summer(£15.6m) heading back plus cash as part of the deal to land Griezmann.
Griezmann’s fee only appears to be the stumbling block in this purported move coupled with the fact that he only joined Atleti last summer so the club won’t be too keen to let him go. Taking into consideration the Spanish club financial debt up to €500m,safe for coach Diego Simeone’s shrewd transfer dealings in the past years. With the transfer of Diego Costa and Felipé Luis last term and the sale of Mario Manzukic to Juventus this year,has given the club a bit of a cash reserve.
With the arrivals of Luciano Vietto from Villa real and Jackson Martinez from porto might just make the French mans transfer to stanford bridge seem likely. In football, sometimes you just never know in terms of transfer dealings.