Once Barcelona complete the procedure of electing a new club president, it’s very likely that Pedro Rodriguez will be sold to Chelsea, who plan on matching his release clause and triggering the sale.

There are quite a few clubs willing to pay Barcelona the £21.6 million it costs to sign Pedro: Chelsea, Arsenal, PSG and Liverpool. But it seems that the Spain international (51 caps) has been talking quite a lot to Cesc Fabregas and Jose Mourinho, convincing him to sign with the Premier League champions.

Pedro has been playing for Barcelona his entire career. He moved to their youth club in 2004 and played his first match for the senior club in 2008. He became a key member of the team’s success in the 2009-2010 season, breaking out with 12 league goals and earning a spot in the 2010 World Cup team which ended up winning the trophy.

Pedro had a fantastic 2010-2011 season despite the arrival of David Villa, scoring 13 league goals and playing a big part in the club winning the Champions League. Injuries hurt his meteoric rise, but Pedro remained an important part of the rotation, usually starting, and was brilliant for most of the 2013-2014 season, scoring 15 league goals as Barcelona finished second after drawing on the last day of the season with Atletico Madrid.

With Luis Suarez arriving, Pedro was relegated to a more minor role than before in 2014-2015, still playing in 50 matches (all competitions) but usually coming off the bench and scoring just 11 goals in all competition.

The thing about Pedro moving to Chelsea is that it doesn’t promise him more playing time. While Pedro is quite the useful player and can play on both wings and even as a centre forward if Jose Mourinho feels like parking the bus and not using any strikers (which he does from time to time), he’s not guaranteed playing time at Stamford Bridge.

However, maybe it is time for him to move on at Barcelona. At 28, after achieving everything he could with the club and the opportunity for him to become a starting player again pretty much blocked because of the quality of the players in front of him, it’s hard to argue against the decision to leave, even if he might find out that life isn’t so comfortable far away from the Camp Nou.