Pedro Rodriguez, chased by Manchester United for weeks before joining Chelsea, has said that he doesn't like the treatment of him former-teammates by United boss Louis van Gaal.
The Spanish winger had been at Barcelona for eleven years but after first team football was escaping him, he decided to come to the Premier League. Arsenal were interested as well as United and Chelsea but dithering from the former two meant the Blues could nick him away from the Camp Nou easily.
However, there may have been doubts for Pedro over a move to United, having seen former-Barcelona teammate Victor Valdes banished from the club's first team after falling out with manager Van Gaal. Valdes, 33, was not selected for the pre-season squad which toured the United States of America and has often been training with the reserves.
Pedro says treatment of Valdes at United is bad
Pedro says "it's true that I don't like that treatment for my colleagues" and "for Victor, especially" because he "has been a reference as a team-mate and as a professional" in football.
The 28-year-old forward was speaking to the Spanish newspaper Marca in which he continues that he doesn't "belive it's [treatment of Valdes] fair but it didn't influence my decision" because he "just saw that Manchester [United] were taking too long" whereas "Chelsea were more decisive."
Meeting with Mourinho convinced Pedro to join Chelsea
Pedro also "had an important chat with Jose Mourinho", who was Real Madrid manager during a period of Pedro's days as a Barcelona player, but even with that "he said many things that [he] liked to hear" so this meeting as well as "the possibility to live in London, was what made me decide" to join Chelsea.
Chelsea's summer signing has already had an impact, much to Manchester United fans' dismay. A debut goal and assist followed with another assist in his second game hasn't been able to help Chelsea fall to thirteenth in the Premier League table, however.