The links of a few months ago connecting Chelsea to Pedro Lima, the teenage Brazilian right wing back, have only grown stronger today following the worlds of Marcelo Barros, a director of the players current club Sport Recife.
Man City and Liverpool have also had their names mentioned in the initial chatter about interest in Lima, but Chelsea have been by far the most strongly connected, and Barros seemed to name us without naming us in quotes picked up by the Evening Standard:
“There are many clubs interested,” Barros said.
“And Pedro and I have been talking to more than one club. But there are slightly more advanced negotiations with one of them.
“We’re making a very careful assessment. I don’t see a club in Brazil that would make the investment we want for Pedro, and it’s not in the athlete’s interest either. So we’re not too worried. And there are different offers.”
This follows on from the initial rumours that we were interested in the 17 year old which began to bubble up in April. Since then he’s continued featuring semi-regularly for Sport, and attention on him is only growing.
An illogical move – but a great talent
In the short term, signing another right back doesn’t seem too sensible – we’ve got a very good first choice, and a very good second choice, and a number of players able to play there as a reserve third option. That’s before you even get onto promising academy prospects.
But the importing of talent can never sleep, and if there’s one thing the last couple of years have taught us it’s that you can’t really use that sort of sensible logic with these sporting directors. They’ve been instructed to buy the best South American talent, and that’s just what they’ll do.
