Man Utd told they should have signed ‘unbelievable’ £60m star ahead of Chelsea

Michael Owen says he is a ‘huge fan’ of Joao Pedro and Manchester United should have looked to sign the ‘unbelievable’ forward before he joined Chelsea.

Pedro left Brighton to complete a £60million move to Chelsea 12 months ago and the 24-year-old went on to enjoy an impressive debut season in an otherwise wretched campaign for the club.

The versatile attacker quickly established himself as the Blues’ first-choice centre-forward ahead of fellow summer signing Liam Delap and finished with 20 goals to his name in all competitions.

No doubt still hurting after missing out on Brazil’s World Cup squad, he will be looking to get off on the right foot under new manager Xabi Alonso this coming season, starting against local rivals Fulham in a week’s time.

After finishing down in tenth last term, Chelsea have no European football to contend with this time around – giving Alonso the luxury of being able to focus purely on domestic football over the coming weeks and months.

According to Owen, this could prove massively beneficial for Alonso’s men, who he is backing to finish second in the top flight behind reigning champions Arsenal.

Asked to name his favourites to challenge Arsenal, Owen told The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast: ‘Chelsea. This could be way off the mark but they’ve got no Europe at all and you see how important that has been over the years. It was brilliant for Manchester United last year.

‘This manager [Xabi Alonso] did something similar with an unfancied team in Germany [Bayer Leverkusen], he’s going to change a lot, they’ve bought well.’

Owen has high hopes for Chelsea’s all-star attack this season and believes Manchester United missed a trick not trying to sign Pedro before the Blues came in for the Brazilian last year.

‘I’m a huge Joao Pedro fan, I think he’s unbelievable. In fact, Manchester United should have bought him about four years ago when he was at Watford,’ the ex-England, United and Liverpool striker explained.

‘United had nobody up front for years and I thought, “That Joao Pedro”, I love him.

‘Him, Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer as a front three… strange signings in Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson obviously.’

While acknowledging ‘question marks’ surrounding Robert Sanchez, Owen feels Chelsea could ‘catch fire’ and have a ‘big season’ in Alonso’s first year in charge.

He continued: ‘There’s a big question mark over the goalkeeper, I hear that.

‘But I just think that could catch fire that team. They’ve got no European football to concentrate on and there’s some good players there.

‘I think Chelsea could have a big season.’

Reports emanating out of Brazil earlier this month claimed Arsenal had made a surprise approach for Pedro in an attempt to lure the forward from west to north London ahead of the new season.

The Gunners were believed to have indicated that they would be willing to splash out €100m (£86m) on Pedro, but Chelsea were quick to knock back their rivals’ move.

Pedro, who is deemed one of Chelsea’s ‘untouchables’, has also attracted strong interest from Barcelona in the past.

The former Fluminense, Watford and Brighton man has seven years remaining on his current contract at Stamford Bridge.

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