Paul Merson believes Arsenal missed a trick when they did not sign Pedro Neto earlier this summer.
The Portugal international recently completed a lucrative move from Wolves to the Gunners’ fierce London rivals Chelsea, who have embarked on yet another summer of heavy spending.
Neto — whose fee is understood to be in the region of £54m (per BBC Sport) — arrives having posted three goals and 11 assists in 24 appearances across all competitions last season, despite being massively disrupted by multiple hamstring injuries.
The 24-year-old joins the likes of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jorgensen and Tosin Adarabioyo through the Stamford Bridge door in a busy window for the Blues.
Paul Merson ‘shocked’ by Pedro Neto transfer
Merson has backed Neto to be an ‘incredible signing’ for Chelsea, but has lamented the fact that his former club, Arsenal, didn’t make a move for him earlier in the summer to help their existing star forwards Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
“Someone else who I think can do really well is Pedro Neto at Chelsea,” Merson told Sky Sports.
“At the start of the summer, I thought he’d be a great signing for Arsenal. He suits them down to the ground and is a player that could have taken the load off Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
“So, that deal shocked me. If Chelsea can keep him fit, I think it is an incredible signing.”
There’s several problems with this line of thinking, not the least of which is that it’s another case of a pundit playing Football Manager on air instead of actually applying any critical judgment or expertise, but let me just say two words:
injury record.
Thank you, I’m here all week.
Exactly, he would be unreliable due to his injury record. The transfer window is still open and Edu may still suprise us all with a world class attacker.
Good signing for chelsea