Wolves hijack Chelsea deal for Pedro Lima despite sister club connections
According to Fabrizio Romano, Wolves have hijacked Strasbourg target Pedro Lima under the BlueCo ownership banner, which owns Chelsea and has a stake in the Ligue 1 club as well. Wolves moved quickly to strike a shock 11th-hour deal for the Brazilian youngster instead.
Lima was expected to join the Ligue 1 club after the Blues reached an agreement with Sport Recife, but Premier League club Wolves made a spontaneous attempt to sign the right-back despite Chelsea’s owners’ protracted negotiations over the weeks.
Lima, who broke through into the first team, enjoyed a productive season, and his performance impressed the Blues, who wanted to sign the full-back and send him directly to sister club Strasbourg. With everything on the line, the Wolves struck a deal at the last moment.
The Brazilian club also confirmed that Wolves have reached an agreement with Recife to sign the 17-year-old teenager, and they also released a statement that read:
“Sport Club do Recife announces that it has signed a binding agreement to transfer the economic and federative rights of athlete Pedro Lima to Wolverhampton Wanderers from England.’’
This is just another instance of how clubs should quickly wrap up their signings if they are desperate to land a player because any team could hijack their targets if the deal is not completed. This will be a big lesson for Strasbourg, but we cannot blame them because when you are competing financially with Premier League clubs, it’s tough, and it’s obvious Wolves completed the last-minute deal by flexing their financial muscle in the signing. Had it been Chelsea, the story would have been different.
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It will come as a huge shock to the Blues, who pushed for their acquisition but moved slowly. Chelsea’s plan was to send Lima to Ligue 1 and allow him to develop until they felt he was prepared to make noise in the Premier League. This will undoubtedly be an important learning experience for them in every signing because we cannot always sign our preferred targets as at the end someone will be their to spoil our party.