Blues in pole position for Pedro as PSR 'joke' exposed

COULD THEY SCUPPER UNITED AGAIN?

- By CIARAN KELLY Football writer

IS HISTORY about to repeat itself? Chelsea are growing increasingly confident of winning the race to sign Joao Pedro - just a year after the Blues landed another of Newcastle United’s top targets, Tosin Adarabioyo.

Chelsea may have only finished three points ahead of Newcastle last season, but Enzo Maresca's side look to have far greater headroom off the field to meet Brighton's asking price for Pedro while still having more than enough left over to strengthen a host of other positions.

Geordies may understandably ask how that is the case when Newcastle have not made a major signing in nearly two years whereas Chelsea, in contrast, have even breached UEFA's spending limits in that time.

However, the Premier League, unlike UEFA, allow the sale of assets to sister companies to count towards their rules, which has given Chelsea an almighty shot in the arm.

Richard Masters may have raised eyebrows when he said that Chelsea had not 'exploited a loophole' by selling their women's team to BlueCo for £200m, but the Premier League's chief executive was not wrong when he said it was 'permissible.