After having their initial £20m bid rejected by Watford, it’s believed that Newcastle will go back with an improved bid for Brazilian forward, Joao Pedro today.
The Mail Online report that Newcastle’s next bid will still be short of Watford’s £30m asking price, but are confident that an agreement can be reached.
When this story broke earlier this week there was much head-scratching amongst Newcastle fans, myself included, as they wondered just how far down the list of transfer targets we have got to land on another relegated player who didn’t exactly contribute to Watford’s survival efforts last season.
However, if you look away from his current record and look at the big picture, this transfer may make more sense than first thought. Joao Pedro is only 20 so still has a lot to learn, and if he were to come to Newcastle he’d be learning from the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton, his fellow Brazilians, plus he will have Callum Wilson to help him with his finishing and other players in our squad with special skills that just weren’t available to him at Watford.
Is Joao Pedro Good Enough?
Yes
No
Not yet, but could be
Pedro does feel like a big step down from the likes of Hugo Ekitike and Armando Broja who we have previously been linked with to fill the young, hungry striker role that Eddie Howe seems desperate to bring in, but if it were to work out, it wouldn’t be the first time a middling player turned into a world-beater after changing clubs.
The way we have to look at it is that Eddie Howe and Dan Ashworth are privy to a lot more information than we as fans are, so they will be able to make far better and more educated decisions than we can after watching one Watford game and looking at Opta Stats and Wikipedia.
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