We’ve spent all morning bigging up Pedro Neto after he had the first really definitive big game showing of his Chelsea career against Arsenal yesterday evening. But as CaughtOffside have pointed out today in their exclusive with Charles Watts today, things could have been very different.
“Of all the signings Chelsea have made over the past couple of years, Pedro Neto was the one that I looked at and felt that Arsenal should have had a go for,” Watts wrote in his column for the site.
“They had looked at him in the past, but a move never materialised. I think at the time they seriously considered him, Wolves were better placed to resist any advances. But last summer he just wasn’t really on the radar. I don’t know why that was. Clearly, he was available, but Arsenal didn’t make a move and Chelsea did.
“He always looked like a player to me who was perfect for Arsenal. Obviously there were injury concerns. His availability while he was at Wolves was not great and maybe that put some clubs off. But when he was fit he was always top quality and given his attributes he really did feel tailor-made for this Arsenal squad.
Signing Neto was double win for Chelsea
Arsenal’s transfers over the last few years have built a really solid team, and you’re usually onto a good thing if you’re targeting similar players. In this case, it looks like we really stole a march on them. Not only do we have a really good, versatile player at a perfect age to perform right away, we’ve also denied him to one of our rivals.
Just think how much the Gunners could do with the spark and pace of Neto in their attack – instead, there he was, scoring against them and working his socks off to shut down their rather pedestrian attack.
