Does Manchester United Target Pedro Rodriguez Have a Future at Barcelona?

Pedro Rodriguez appears to have reached a crossroads in his career at Barcelona.

Still only 27 years of age, this World Cup winner is being courted by Manchester United, according to Liam Prenderville of the Daily Mirror.

The report quotes Pedro's team-mate Sergio Busquets as stating:

"

Yes, I have spoken to him but I won't tell you what he said. It was a private conversation. I would want him to stay, I would love him to stay.

He's a friend of mine and it will be his final decision. He wants to play more and get more minutes. That's what he wants.

But we are in a team of great players and it's hard for him. Finally, it will be his decision, but I hope he stays.

"

Sky Sports also reported the Catalans have received bids for the player and quoted Luis Enrique at his post-match press conference following the 2-1 victory over LA Galaxy on Wednesday as saying: "I'm not going to say what I said, or what he told me. It's the decision of the player. When he says something, then I'll say something."

Reading between the lines, you would suspect Pedro is tempted by the lure of the Premier League and Louis van Gaal's project at Old Trafford.

And frankly, why wouldn't he be?

A player who has won it all domestically and internationally but whose development has been stunted to a degree because of a more Galactico buying policy from Barcelona.

If we loop back to before Neymar was signed, both Pedro and Alexis Sanchez took it in turns to support David Villa and Lionel Messi in the front three.

Eight goals and seven assists in all competitions for Pedro, per WhoScored.com, wasn't exactly the best return, but it was on par with Sanchez's nine goals and 11 assists.

The following season, Pedro plundered 16 goals and added eight assists, which was a better goalscoring output than the Chilean but with slightly fewer than his 11 assists.

But the fact remained Pedro still wasn't getting the game time he probably felt that he deserved.

Unfortunately, with Luis Enrique taking much the same stance as Tata Martino before him and excluding the Canary Islander from many of his starting lineups, it has led to the player having to assess his options.

If he does indeed have offers from elsewhere, it would be foolish for him to not at least consider them.

What's very interesting about Pedro's situation is that Barcelona have lowered his buyout clause.

Reuters (via the Guardian) detailed the astonishing drop from €150 million to just €30 million, thereby encouraging interest from prospective buyers. 

It was only in June when Pedro signed an extension to his existing contract, per Barca's official website, that would keep him at the club until June 2019. It was at that point his buyout clause was raised to the higher figure.

So what changed in the proceeding six weeks for the club to effectively wipe over €100 million from the player's value?

Of course, buyout clauses are put in place to discourage bids in the first place, and rarely will a buying club pay the full original amount. Pedro simply isn't worth €150 million, by way of example.

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But the inference from the club is clear. He is available, and any party-line rhetoric to the contrary is simply a smokescreen.

Clearly, Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez will continue to be the manager's favoured front three, and after scoring a Spanish-record 122 goals between them last year, you can hardly blame Lucho.

Unless Pedro is willing to adapt to another role within the side or Barca are hit with an injury crisis, he will again only play a handful of games.

He does have a future at the club, just not the one he desires.

Back in April, he told Al Primer Toque (via Vaishali Bhardwaj of Metro):

"

Playing few games, not many minutes, it is normal that there can be talk of leaving, that is logical.

It is the same for all players, everyone wants to play. When you do not play in important games, then it is a difficult situation.

"

The "difficult situation" remains, and that being the case, professional pride surely dictates it's now time for him to move on.