The way José Mourinho tells it, the sales pitch lasted no more than a minute. It was on Monday morning that the Chelsea manager first learnt that Pedro had decided to bid farewell to Barcelona. The Portuguese had heard the rumours, of course, but it was only then that he believed the 28-year-old really was prepared to leave “the club of his dreams and the club of his heart”.
That changed everything. Mourinho had seen Pedro play in the European Super Cup the previous Friday, scoring the winning goal in extra time as the European champions, thrillingly, beat Seville 5-4. He had done so knowing that he wanted out. To Mourinho, that “commitment and professionalism” was gold dust. With Manchester United hovering, he knew that he had to move fast. “We decided as a club not to lose out,” he said.
Chelsea — in stark contrast to United — were decisive. As Pedro admitted, though, Mourinho’s intervention was crucial. “It was one minute,” Mourinho said. “I asked if it was true he wanted to leave. ‘Yes, it’s true. It is my home, but it is time for me to leave.’ ‘Did you already sign for another club?’ ‘Almost, but not yet’. ‘Do you want to come here?’ ‘Yes, I want.’ For me, it was one minute.”
It was not, then, exactly a hard sell. But Chelsea never are. Mourinho cannot quite explain it, but alone among their Premier League peers, they rarely struggle to get the players they want. “You would have to ask the players: is the blue nice, or Mr Abramovich, or the way Marina deals with them, or that [technical director Michael] Emenalo persuades them about what Chelsea is? Is it the other players? Is it the beautiful weather?”
The last aside, it is all of the above. Their capture of Pedro, once more, highlights where they stand: they have now beaten Manchester United to the forward and to Fàbregas; they have pipped Tottenham Hotspur to Willian, too, and Manchester City to Eden Hazard. Chelsea, in English terms, are the apex predator. Ordinarily, they get precisely what they want, and they get it fast.