Wolves are set to complete their third signing of the summer soon, with Pedro Lima to join from Sport Recife.
Wanderers surprised many people on Monday night, as word became public that they had reached an agreement with Brazilian club Sport Recife to sign Pedro Lima.
The 17-year-old had been expected to join Chelsea.
Wolves attacker Matheus Cunha had even expressed his regret that the player seemed to be on his way to the London club.
But the situation completely changed in recent days.
Lima is now joining Wolves, with the move to be made official on July 1. The club have apparently agreed to pay around £8.5 million.
Now, there is word from a member of Sport Recife’s management committee about what Chelsea tried to do.
Chelsea tried to come back in for Pedro Lima, but Sport Recife rebuffed the approach to speak with Wolves
Lima appears to have been swiped from under the noses of Chelsea by Wolves.
Globo Esporte last night provided some information about the deal, and they spoke to Guilherme Falcão, who is a member of Sport Recife’s football management committee.
He admits that there were talks with Chelsea over Lima. Apparently, there were just some things that they ultimately couldn’t agree with the Blues on.
He said: “What I can say is that we had defined in a clear and transparent way for the interlocutors who were negotiating with us what we wanted.
“And this was not completely met, so we thanked them and started to sit down at another negotiating table.”
Interestingly, Chelsea then attempted to resurrect a deal for Lima upon learning Sport Recife had entered into talks with Wolves. But Falcao says the club were not about to entertain two clubs at once.
“It is important to make it clear that at no time did we conduct the auction,” he added. “We only started negotiating with the other party when the negotiations with the initial club (Chelsea) were closed and this was communicated.
“Even when they tried to return, we asked them to wait because we had started negotiating with another club.”
Fair play to Sport Recife
- READ MORE: The one crucial factor that helped Wolves to hijack Pedro Lima transfer from Chelsea’s grasp
It is really interesting to read what Falcao has said about this deal, and Recife should be respected for how they handled the situation.
They seemingly didn’t agree to what Chelsea were proposing and respectfully walked away.
Then, once in talks with Wolves, they did not seek to have more talks with Chelsea, and play Wolves off against them.
One wonders just how common this kind of behaviour in football is these days. Potentially, Sport Recife might have been able to pit Wolves and Chelsea against one another for Lima, and ended up with more money for their prospect.
But they spoke with Wolves and now an agreement is in place for him to come to Molineux. And potentially, the two clubs will now have a good relationship moving forward.