Pedro Rodríguez

[Jase 43,479]

Contract extended until the end of the season, including the FA Cup and Champions League.

 

[BigMabz 61]

Great news. I think his energy will be crucial during these last few games. Much like Willian, its the perfect time for him to move on. He has been a great player for us and always worked hard for the cause. 

[Jase 43,479]

16 hours ago, King Kante said:

Love it when people say this man knows what is going on. Just 2-3 days ago he said he wasn't going to agree 😂😂

To be fair, it did look like Pedro wasn't willing to finish the season with us and his reasoning was a fair one - afraid of getting injured and jeopardizing his next move etc. I believe Matt Law and Guardian also reported the same thing. 

According to the latest article on The Athletic, it took convincing from the board/Lampard as well as reassurances from Roma's Paulo Fonseca for Pedro to change his mind. 

[Special Juan 27,106]

Deal done to Roma, he leaves on a free end of the season.

[Vesper 27,384]

Pedro conquered football at Barcelona, but at Chelsea he has completed it

https://theathletic.com/1887562/2020/06/24/pedro-conquered-football-at-barcelona-but-at-chelsea-he-has-completed-it/

Amid the celebrations that followed Chelsea’s convincing Europa League final victory over Arsenal last season, one of Pedro Rodriguez’s team-mates turned to him and said: “You’ve completed football now.”

“Oh yeah, I have won everything,” he replied, a startlingly casual response to his new status as the first footballer to lift every major trophy at club and international level. “We were laughing and joking and he was like, ‘Yeah, I have won the lot’,” Rob Green tells The Athletic. “And we were like, ‘What?’ He had never mentioned that. It took someone else to raise it.”

Pedro did not dominate the headlines after the final. That honour belonged to Eden Hazard, who signed off seven glorious years at Chelsea with two goals and a match-winning performance. Then there was Olivier Giroud, whose decisive opening goal against his former club had earned him the tournament’s Golden Boot award.

But Pedro’s historic feats went beyond adding a 25th winners’ medal to his glittering collection. A characteristically sharp shot into the bottom corner on the hour mark in Baku made him the first Spaniard to score in a Champions League and a UEFA Cup or Europa League final. It is a club that consists of only four other members: Hernan Crespo, Allan Simonsen, Dmitri Alenichev and Steven Gerrard.

If it proves the last trophy of his Chelsea career, supporters will need to think beyond a forgettable final season under Frank Lampard when evaluating his Stamford Bridge legacy — although last night’s news of a short-term contract extension means there might yet be one final chapter to write. Regardless, his is a story well worth remembering.

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Pedro’s determination to push his way out of Barcelona in the summer of 2015 indicated an impressive hunger. The comfortable choice would have been to stay with the club that had formed him as a man as well as a footballer, giving him an opportunity to scale unimaginable heights and dominate the sport, even as his first-team opportunities dwindled.

There were other enticing options. Manchester United, rebuilding under former Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal, were keen suitors. In fact, it looked certain he was heading to Old Trafford. Somehow, like many defenders when Pedro is around the area, they were caught out of position.

Premier League champions Chelsea presented him with a chance to live in London and link up with Spain team-mates Cesar Azpilicueta, Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa. Pedro took his time making up his mind, and a £21.4 million deal to bring him to Stamford Bridge was announced on August 20.

Pedro’s agent Antonio Sanz revealed: “Maybe Manchester United fell asleep. The negotiation with Chelsea was like a lightning bolt.

“It is common knowledge that United were in the bidding for Pedro, but Chelsea were faster and within 24 hours reached an agreement with the club. It was a whirlwind.”

The move was widely considered a steal — a perception only strengthened by United’s decision to commit up to £58 million to sign teenager Anthony Martial from Monaco on deadline day. By then Pedro had made an emphatic start to his Premier League career, scoring one and creating another for Costa on his debut as Chelsea held off West Bromwich Albion 3-2 at The Hawthorns, despite having John Terry sent off.

Many of the Chelsea players who had battled Pedro in his Barcelona days quickly gained a new appreciation for his qualities up close at Cobham. “When he came from Barcelona, we could see his talent,” Branislav Ivanovic tells The Athletic. “He has something different in that position than any other player in the world — he’s so quick with the ball at his feet, he’s always hungry and looking to score. He always goes straight to the goal and it made him an amazing player.

“He was not the most physical player for the Premier League but he adapted perfectly because of his own quality. His speed was amazing, especially over short distances. I remember in training when we practised short sprints he was always ahead of us. He was hardly touching the ground when he was running!”

Pedro’s warm and good-natured demeanour helped him settle quickly into the Chelsea dressing room in spite of his limited English, and Azpilicueta and Fabregas embraced his arrival. “Off the pitch, he was a little quiet but good enough in the group,” Ivanovic adds. “He was always laughing and talking with the Spanish guys, most of the time with them. They helped him also to settle in, but when you have the quality that Pedro has, you don’t need a lot of time to adapt.”

The story of Pedro’s first two seasons at Chelsea clarified his identity as a player who shines in a successful system but who cannot heal a dysfunctional one. His debut Premier League campaign yielded seven goals but he was powerless to prevent the disastrous unravelling of Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Stamford Bridge or the team’s plummet to the brink of the relegation zone before recovering to mid-table obscurity.

Talk of a swift return to Barcelona seemed credible, but Pedro shut it down during a rare sit-down interview with the Evening Standard in May 2016. “I am really happy here and have no regrets about the decision I made to join Chelsea,” he insisted. “I am already looking forward to next season in terms of what we can achieve and putting the club back where it should be.

“I’m sure next season will be a great one for me and the club. I’m really looking forward to fighting for the Premier League, which will be a dream for me.”

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Antonio Conte unlocked Pedro’s true value in the 2016-17 season, deploying him on the right of the attacking line in the inspired 3-4-3 system that powered Chelsea’s surge to a second Premier League title in three years. He scored nine goals in the league, including spectacular and crucial strikes from outside the box at home against Tottenham in November and away at Everton in April.

Pedro’s form and fitness waned the following season in line with the momentum of the Conte era, but he silenced suggestions of irreversible decline by matching his Chelsea career-best tally of 13 goals across all competitions for Maurizio Sarri in 2018-19. The campaigns yielded contrasting emotions, but both ended with him lifting new silverware — the FA Cup at Wembley in May 2018 and the Europa League in Baku a year later.

The ebbs and flows in his production were not solely down to age and health. Pedro had married childhood sweetheart Carolina Martin in June 2015 as he weighed up whether to move to England, but the pair split up and divorced in 2017. She returned to Spain with their children, and the personal upheaval took its toll. Many at Chelsea noticed a break from his usually smiley demeanour when he spoke of missing his children, and the difficulty of finding a new partner in London.

Observers noticed how he took advantage of Chelsea’s trip to Barcelona in 2018, when they played the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie. It gave him the chance to have a rare kickabout with his children at the Camp Nou of all places. Those team-mates that were filming the moment on their phones were asked to send on the footage.

The club may have lost the tie 3-0, but the player had the consolation of going back home with a treasured memento from the excursion.

Sarri’s rollercoaster season in charge brought other challenges. “He wanted the bus to be silent on the way to games — nobody was really allowed to speak,” Green recalls. “So even if we were driving through London, you’re talking about a good 40 minutes sat in silence.”

For Pedro, who regularly sits with Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso and Willy Caballero on the team bus talking and playing Parcheesi —an equivalent board game to Ludo, popular in Spain — it was jarring. “The group which Pedro was a part of would explain the difference in mentality,” Green adds. “If you have a quiet bus where they are from, then something is wrong. Whereas in Italy, where Sarri is from, something is wrong if it’s a noisy bus.

“In South America, in Spain, the thinking is we are going to a game, relax, enjoy it. That was something Pedro and the others had to take on somehow. They were there to enjoy it and play with a smile. What a great way to live your life, rather than bricking it every time you play on the pitch. Pedro played like that. He was a bundle of energy.

“You’d be sitting there on the bus and, say, if someone hadn’t travelled for a while like Gary Cahill and he was chatting away happily, Sarri would say, ‘Gaz, no’. And Gary would be like, ‘What?!’ Sarri would say, ‘Don’t speak, mutter’.

“If someone from Pedro’s group or elsewhere exploded with laughter, you’d hear the wrath from the front of the bus. But Pedro had that Spanish way of life — he just wanted to express himself on the pitch and off it.”

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Pedro scored arguably the finest goal of his Chelsea career at the start of August: an outrageous, immaculate flying backheel from Ross Barkley’s floated cross in a 5-3 pre-season win over RB Salzburg. Hampered by injury and sidelined by Frank Lampard’s vibrant youth revolution since, he has found other ways to meaningfully contribute to what everyone has known for some time will be his final season at Stamford Bridge.

Ivanovic recalls a Pedro who, early in his Chelsea career, largely kept to himself off the pitch and gravitated naturally towards his fellow Spaniards in the dressing room. Green saw an older version, more at home in his surroundings and prepared to embrace his role as a senior figure in an increasingly youthful squad. That development has continued this season.

Lampard has spoken positively about Pedro’s professionalism at every opportunity. He trains with the same enthusiasm and intensity regardless of whether or not he is considered to be in serious contention for first-team minutes. Through actions more than words — he remains very self-conscious about his English, regularly describing it as “awful” — he sets an example for Chelsea’s academy graduates, a baseline of commitment and quality that they must match in order to play.

“Above anything, it’s about the will to do well,” Pedro said of Chelsea’s young players in an interview with The Independent in September. “It’s about everyday education, and the desire to get better, to show they should be in the first team and keep doing it there for many years… to show every day you belong here.

“If you don’t, it’s impossible for a young player to get to the level of Frank Lampard or John Terry. That’s the key, the will to show your qualities every day and to stay here for many years and show you belong. It’s not just about ‘want’. Many players ‘want’. It’s about showing it.”

This attitude is why Lampard was so understanding in talks with Pedro and Willian about extending their contracts until the end of a season delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both will play out the season at Chelsea but a switch to Roma has been agreed for Pedro. They can offer Pedro what Chelsea would not: a chance to continue his top-level football career, to continue trying to add to his 25 major career honours, and to continue trying to score goals.

Goals form a key part of Pedro’s legacy at Chelsea. The raw numbers are far from phenomenal — he has been a scorer of great goals rather than a great goalscorer during his time in England — but the sheer versatility of his finishing is hugely impressive: of his 29 goals in the Premier League, 13 were scored with his right foot, 14 with his left and two with his head.

“He had an easy finish, even with difficult balls,” Ivanovic says. “You could see he came from the Barcelona school. When you saw how easily he finished difficult balls with both feet, and from the first touch until the end he’s at full speed and in total control… it was amazing.

“He had a big impact on some titles, and what he achieved at the club deserves big respect.”

Lampard extended his playing career in the Premier League until a month before he turned 37. He knows what talented veterans can bring at important moments. It’s why he wanted Pedro and Willian to see this campaign out.

Pedro took some convincing to stay on. As The Athletic revealed last week, he had been unwilling to play for Chelsea because he didn’t want to put his move to Roma at risk. But Lampard is a determined so and so and refused to take no for an answer. He didn’t sound too confident before the weekend, but talks were stepped up on Monday and Tuesday, leading to a change of heart.

It helped that Pedro also had some words of reassurance about staying at Chelsea for another six weeks from Roma coach Paulo Fonseca soon after agreeing a two-year deal (with an option for a further 12 months) worth £56,000-a-week.

This will be his swansong at Chelsea. There will be no more extensions after this. As the new contract includes the FA Cup, the final of which will be played on August 1, he still has the chance to sign off with trophy number 26. The club have a quarter-final against Leicester City on Sunday.

Surprisingly, he is staying for the Champions League too, but nobody expects Bayern Munich to blow a 3-0 first-leg lead at home the week after the FA Cup final.

Regardless, Pedro will be remembered at Stamford Bridge and beyond as one of football’s great winners. He came to England in 2015 with nothing to prove, and yet still drove himself to make more history.

To paraphrase that team-mate in Baku, he conquered football at Barcelona but he completed it at Chelsea.

[milka 3,308]

A true professional and an example for the younger lads.

Thank you for some unbelievable moments Pedrito

 

 

[killer1257 3,282]

Still has a lot to offer. He almost scored a typical Pedro goal outside the box

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[OneMoSalah 8,616]

Think Serie A will suit him. Not sure he will win a lot with Roma but they have some exciting younger players and he is a top pro who has won everything, so will be a good influence around as well as being able to still contribute. Hopefully he can get a few goals before the end of the season. 

[Jase 43,479]

Looks like Pedro won't feature for us in the FA Cup or Champions League and today was his last game for us.

 

[nyikolajevics 2,438]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

Looks like Pedro won't feature for us in the FA Cup or Champions League and today was his last game for us.

 

He said last league game.. However if Puli and Willian are healthy he won’t play. Great servant anyway, mever would have thought he’d play half a decade for the club when he joined.

[Jase 43,479]

3 minutes ago, nyikolajevics said:

He said last league game.. However if Puli and Willian are healthy he won’t play. Great servant anyway, mever would have thought he’d play half a decade for the club when he joined.

But if it's only his last league game, why was Pedro serenaded after the match when we still have 2 more to come? And the quote from a journalist does seem to suggest it was his last one. (will need to watch the video to be sure)

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Special Juan 27,106]

The service and the goals this bloke has offered has been unreal, so sad to see him go.

[King Kante 1,331]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

That sounds like he will be here for the FA Cup game. Not expecting him for the CL as that goes into August and he has a contract with Roma so surely they'll want him rested/ready to train with them. I suspect this will also be the case with Willian unless he re-signs. 

[Superblue 6,331]

I remember going to West Brom at home in his first season around Xmas time and he was awful. I just could not see him staying beyond that season. He looked lightweight, on a completely different wavelength to everyone else, and a shadow of the player at Barca.

However it's testament to his character how he turned that around because after his Barca and Spain career he had nothing left to prove. (The Spanish players never seem to be middle ground, they either have great spirit and determination like Pedro, Azpi, Mata and Fabregas or just fall apart like Del Horno, Torres and Kepa)

Great player, great attitude and work ethic and scored some big and clutch goals for us.

[Jase 43,479]

His two best goals for us...

 

 

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Special Juan 27,106]

Cesc is so Chels.