Chelsea could be set to hijack Newcastle’s £60m bid for João Pedro - but it doesn’t look like the best plan.
The future of Brighton forward João Pedro will likely be decided in the coming weeks, and it doesn’t look like it will be at the Amex Stadium – Newcastle United are already in negotiations and recent tabloid reports suggest that Chelsea could launch a bid of their own.
Brighton have reportedly slapped a £60m asking price on the Brazilian’s head and some outlets are already suggesting that Newcastle have already agreed personal terms with the player as club-to-club discussions continue. The deal is done yet, however, and there’s a growing buzz around the idea that Chelsea could attempt a good old-fashioned gazumping. But should they leave this particular transfer alone?
Why Chelsea simply don’t need João Pedro
Newcastle seem to be prepared to gamble that João Pedro is just as effective as a right winger as he has been on the left or in the middle, the areas in which the right-footed forward operates for his current club.
While his positional versatility could come into play at times as the packed schedule takes its toll, Newcastle don’t play with a number ten and have Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes available on the left. Right wing, by comparison, has been something of a problem position since Miguel Almirón left, with Jacob Murphy’s fine 2024/25 form papering over a crack created by a lack of depth.
Whether João Pedro is indeed suited to that role is an open question, but at least there is a clear role for him in the Newcastle squad. If Chelsea do make a move, one wonders exactly what they would have in mind for him.
It’s debatable whether he performs better as a striker, a number ten or as an inverted forward coming in from the left, and these are all positions in which Chelsea need bodies, but João Pedro’s playing style may be an awkward fit for Enzo Maresca’s system.
Yes, they need another left winger with Jadon Sancho gone, João Félix out of the picture and Mykhaylo Mudryk suspended as he faces charges over the alleged use of a banned substance – but Maresca wants his wingers playing wide, sticking close to the byline and only coming into the box to attack when already in line with the penalty area.
João Pedro, instead, is a player that like to ply the channels, taking up narrower positions while an attacking full-back provides the width outside and getting into the box from in front of it, not from the sides. Perhaps the 23-year-old could adapt but that gap between the manager’s methods and a player’s instinctive style is among the reasons that Sancho struggled to make things tick this season.
And sure, Chelsea probably need another player who can play as the number nine, but João Pedro is a very different type of striker than Liam Delap or Nicolas Jackson, who like to play off the shoulder of the last man. Again, it’s hard to see how João Pedro adapts his game to be the kind of centre-forward that Maresca wants and needs.
Which would leave him as a number ten. No issues there, of course, the former Watford man is a strong creative force who knows how to interlink effectively with other attacking players in those pockets of space just outside the box. Still, there’s a chap called Cole Palmer in that position already, and spending around £60m to sign someone solely to deputise for Palmer feels a little rich, even by Chelsea’s free-spending standards.
João Pedro’s scoring record may flatter him slightly
The counterpoint to that, of course, is that João Pedro could simply be a good enough player to overcome any concerns about the role that he might play in Maresca’s squad – or indeed in Howe’s.
19 Premier League goals in the past two seasons has earned him a reputation as a dangerous goalscoring threat, but it might be a stretch to call him a natural striker. After all, that total includes nine penalty kicks, and he underperformed his xG of 12.9 from open play. His dynamism allows him to get into enough good scoring positions to make a dent, but putting him in the team for his goals would be an error.
That would be especially true for a team that already has a firmly established penalty taker, as it the case with both Chelsea and Newcastle. So if Chelsea were to sign João Pedro, it would be to lean on his creative talents – and while those are considerable enough, if there isn’t a clear role in which he can operate as a playmaker, at least in the starting XI, then it’s debatable whether a deal makes much sense.
It's near enough impossible to say whether he will prove to be a success at Newcastle. They seem to want him to play an unfamiliar role – or, perhaps, to see if Gordon can play on the right instead, in which case the uncertainty is simply transferred to a different player.
But it’s a little too easy to foresee the fail case at Chelsea. They need a left winger and seem to have lost the race to sign Nico Williams (who is primed for a move to Barcelona), but that doesn’t mean that it makes sense to sign a player whose style doesn’t mesh with Maresca’s ideas.
In Pedro Neto, they have one player who can do the job Maresca wants him to do on the left, staying wider to create space inside. That’s the sort of winger that Chelsea need to find this summer – and João Pedro doesn’t seem likely to be the right option based on the work he’s done at Brighton.
He’s a fine player and may well be a hit at St. James’ Park, but that doesn’t make him the right man for Chelsea. Since the current ownership succeeded Roman Abramovich, they have proven a little too prone to flashing the cash at any player who catches their eye, without regards to how they fit with their manager’s scheme and system. On this occasion, perhaps they should keep their money in their pocket.
Signing a player who wouldn’t suit the plan out wide, who would back up Palmer at ten and who would provide a rotational option up front that likes to play deeper rather than pinning the defence back? That’s the Christopher Nkunku role. It didn’t work once, and there’s no reason to imagine it would work a second time.
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