Pedro to home in
CHELSEA misfit Pedro has his heart set on a return to Spain – opening the door on a move to Valencia.
The Blues winger, who is out of contract this summer, is being chased by a host of clubs across Europe.
Roma had been pushing hardest to take him to Italy and have made the most appealing offer to the 32-year-old Spaniard, who has found playing time limited at Stamford Bridge this season.
But Pedro fancies a return to Spain, where he played for Barcelona before his £21m move to Chelsea in August 2015.
SOME leading sports stars have decided to use their profile and influence to highlight – once again – the issue of racism that still poisons society.
The individual protests and messages have flooded around the world in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands, or in this tragic case, knees, of white police officers in Minnesota last month.
The actions of the likes of Jadon Sancho and Lewis Hamilton have been powerful.
But perhaps the saddest aspect of all this is that their sentiments and beliefs might prove to be futile while there are other sports personalities who remain part of the problem – instead of the solution.
Like the New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (above).
Despite the fact America continues to burn under the fires of civil unrest and the cretinous leadership of President Donald Trump, Brees has made it clear he will still refuse to take a knee during the national anthem when the NFL season begins.
Brees is the NFL’S all-time leading passer and one of the most high-profile sportsmen in the States.
He’s also tone deaf and willfully ignorant of the racism that remains embedded in the DNA of a country that allows a white and entitled person like him to have such a twisted view.
While people like Brees remain incapable of listening and learning, how can there be change when those who should know better refuse to change themselves?
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PERHAPS it is the familiar black and white strip that is attracting Matty Longstaff to the northern Italian backwater of Udinese.
Or the castles, cathedrals or piazzas of a place with historical links to Attila the Hun. A change of lifestyle or the ambition to learn another language and culture even.
All of these things, combined with the promise of a regular starting place in a Serie A side, is quite a package for a 20-year-old who has never seen much more than the bright lights of Tyneside.
But Google the ‘15 best things to do in Udinese’ and guess what, going to watch a game at the Stadio Fruili (capacity 26,000) is last on the list, below the more attractive options of having a pepperoni pizza in the La Nicchia restaurant – or even getting out of Udinese itself to visit another city in the shape of Trieste.
The reason watching Udinese has become so unappealing is because the masters in mediocrity have won zilch since landing the Intertoto Cup in 2000 and currently find themselves struggling to avoid relegation.
But owner Giampaolo Pozzo has a masterplan for when Serie A resumes following Covid-19 – and it involves signing Longstaff on a £27,000-a-week deal from Newcastle to help save them from the dreaded drop.
The contract would make Longstaff the club’s highest-paid player. Pozzo, who is part of the same family that owns Watford, has turned to a white knight (albeit with ginger hair) who only exited his teens at the same time we all went into lockdown and has made just six league appearances for Steve Bruce’s side this season.
One of them was memorable, it has to be said, when Longstaff marked his Premier League debut in October with the winning goal to sink Manchester United at St James’ Park.
Fairy-tale stuff. Longstaff grew up a boyhood fan of the Magpies and had fulfilled a lifelong ambition.
Longstaff started just five more league games after this before the season was suspended – and in the meantime much has changed.
The Magpies have decided to offer Longstaff, who is on £800 a week, a new contract worth £24,000 a week. But he has rejected it.
In the space of just three months he appears to have turned into Paul Gascoigne. Forget La Nicchia in Udinese, Longstaff has been dining out on one goal that gave him delusions of grandeur.
Back in 1988 Gazza famously turned his back on the Toon to join Tottenham, snubbing United in the process because the London club offered to buy his parents a house and sister a home solarium.
But Longstaff, whose contract expires at the end of this month, is no Gazza. He was a giant fish in a small pond blessed with gifts from the footballing gods.
No. Longstaff has achieved nothing. Bruce took a chance on him and for a short while it paid off.
But now the Saudis are coming and Longstaff is keen to flee the scene at the first time of asking, with his team still battling to beat relegation and in the latter stages of the FA Cup.
Who does he think he is? Home might be where the heart is for most people but Longstaff’s loyalty seems to be to the country that used to deal in Lira.