Who Can Step Up to Replace the Chelsea-Bound Pedro in Barcelona's Squad?

He’ll soon be wearing blue and not the red which many expected to see him in, but as Pedro leaves Barcelona he does so with plenty of happy memories and leaving behind a pretty big gap in the squad to fill.

Manchester United’s loss looks like being Chelsea’s gain, at least according to the BBC, and whilst the vast majority of Catalan attention will remain on the magical trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar—who scored 122 goals between them last season—their faithful deputy slips out the back door.

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Unnoticed? No, but perhaps underappreciated.

Pedro played 321 times over nine seasons for Barcelona, with his 99 goals ensuring that he scored the most of the “human” players currently at the club behind the freakish efforts of that man Messi.

He has five La Liga winners’ medals, three Copa del Rey titles and three Champions League trophies. Whilst some might scoff at the role he played within those triumphs, he can point to several crucial strikes in various title races, two goals in the 2012 Copa final win over Athletic Bilbao and the opener in the Champions League final against Manchester United at Wembley a year earlier.

He made a difference when it mattered, and with the transfer ban still in place at Barcelona, manager Luis Enrique has to decide which one of his current charges can step up and play the faithful fourth fiddle to his superstar trio. The good news is that two stellar young candidates have already revealed themselves.

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Last season Sandro Ramirez and Munir El Haddadi featured 28 times in all competitions between them for Barcelona, the pair almost serving as understudies to the understudy as they frequently took Pedro’s place on the bench as and when the elder man was needed.

It was Munir who made the more immediate impact in 2014/15, scoring on his debut in a 3-0 win over Elche at the Nou Camp last August. Two weeks later, he was in the senior Spanish national team.

If it was all a bit of a rapid rise, then it would tail off in the latter half of the season, as the 19-year-old returned to the Barcelona B team to continue learning his trade—just as his colleague Sandro would.

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He too scored on his senior debut as he grabbed the solitary strike in a win at Villarreal last August, but despite a handful of other goals—including in the Champions League against Ajax—he was to return to the B team to continue his development.

Seemingly more of a traditional forward and a better finisher than Munir, Sandro would feel as though he’d add more guaranteed goals to Enrique’s team were the Barca coach to choose him as “the new Pedro,” with Munir perhaps viewed as a better option when the coach needs someone to play wide and stretch the game and opposition.

It’s a difficult one for the manager to ponder, but as always with Barcelona there does seem to be an embarrassment of riches available.

Perhaps Enrique would be better off using this season as a chance to have both Munir and Sandro audition for Pedro’s role, with the pair alternating between bench duty and stepping in for the odd Copa del Rey or Champions League group game.

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At 19 and 20 they are young enough to have time on their side and not to fall into the trap of players such as Cristian Tello or Isaac Cuenca, who probably hung around at Barcelona too long as their chance never really came.

Some would say that Pedro did that too, but as he moves on and a vacancy is created to support and learn from the best front three in the world, Enrique has a choice to make that is both a difficult one and an easy one at the same time.

Young players don’t tend to let you down, and neither Munir nor Sandro look like doing that for Barcelona.

Just as Pedro didn’t for nine years.