Chelsea striker Joao Pedro has said that moving back to London was the key motivation for him favouring the Blues ahead of Newcastle.

Both clubs went head-to-head for the Brazilian international’s signature in the summer, but the Magpies ended up losing out, with the forward sealing his £60m switch to Stamford Bridge instead.

Pedro has spent several seasons in the capital with Watford, prior to his two years on the South coast, and he says that swayed his thinking on which team he wanted to sign for:

“When I was in Brighton, I was missing London a little bit. I had a chance to move to another club, but I chose Chelsea because it’s in London, it’s a big club, and I knew in my head it was the right move.”

Pedro has had a good start at Chelsea

Considering the 23-year-old never seemed sold on a move to the North East, you can’t say the Magpies missed out on him.

Even so, Pedro has impressed since joining his new club back in July. In 6 appearances for the Blues, he has found the back of the net 5 times, including the opener against Fulham last weekend.

Newcastle have since recruited 2 forwards

It’s fair to say that Eddie Howe and the recruitment department had a tough time landing their top targets. After failing to land Pedro, Hugo Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko, they eventually splashed the cash on Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade and Brentford’s Yoane Wissa.

The combined cost of signing the pair was a pretty steep £124m, which nearly reaches the figure they received from Liverpool for Alexander Isak. Fans will be hoping that Woltemade and Wissa do prove to be big successes on Tyneside.

In other news, click here to see every deal that Newcastle United completed in the summer transfer window