Chelsea have agreed a deal to signal Wolves winger Pedro Neto for a charge of £51.3m, plus £2.6m in add-ons. The Blues’ curiosity within the Portuguese worldwide has been well-documented, as they beat the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United to land Neto’s signature forward of the 2024/25 Premier League season.
Neto had been with Wolves since 2019, after making the transfer to the membership from Portuguese facet, Braga. He’d been a daily within the Wolves beginning XI ever since he signed for them, however discovered it troublesome to remain injury-free within the final three seasons particularly, which shall be a slight concern for Chelsea supporters.
The Blues haven’t been shy of including to their squad this summer season, and with newly-appointed boss Enzo Maresca including Neto to his ranks, the strain is on to provide optimistic outcomes on the earliest of alternatives, with England legend John Barnes amongst many predicting a closely-fought battle for the Champions League locations.
We’ll check out two professionals and one con as Neto settles into life in SW6.
Professional – Neto has Premier League expertise
Chelsea have signed loads of gamers through the years that don’t have any expertise of enjoying within the Premier League, and with the demanding nature of the English top-flight, a few of these signings definitely include a component of threat.
This isn’t the case with Neto although, as he’s spent the final 5 years of his profession enjoying within the Premier League, and he’s definitely caught the attention for all the best causes. There’s clearly a slight threat connected to this switch deal as a result of sizeable switch charge Chelsea have paid to signal him, however he’s obtained expertise of enjoying at this degree, and we’re anticipating him to justify that price ticket.
Professional – It provides apparent high quality to the Chelsea squad
There’s been a weight of expectation on Cole Palmer to offer the artistic spark for Chelsea, and that’s comprehensible given what we’ve seen the teenager is able to at this degree. Nonetheless, the likes of Mykhaylo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling weren’t anyplace close to adequate final season, and extra high quality in extensive areas of this Chelsea staff have been wanted.
Neto provides that high quality out extensive, and given the switch charge that the membership have paid for his companies, you’d anticipate him to be a daily within the beginning XI. He chipped in with three objectives and 11 assists in his 24 appearances for Wolves final season, and can fancy his possibilities of constructing on that spectacular tally heading into the brand new Premier League marketing campaign.
Con – Neto’s harm document
Regardless of Neto’s qualities, his harm document in the previous couple of seasons shall be a priority. In whole, he’s spent 584 days out injured, and has missed 112 matches for Wolves in that point. The very last thing Chelsea will need is for Neto to choose up one other harm drawback that would see him sidelined for a protracted time frame, and so it’s necessary that he’s eased again into motion.