Mission Impossible: Chelsea looking to hijack Manchester United's Pedro deal?

Good evening, Mr. Hunt Ms. Granovskaia.  You mission, should you choose to accept it, is to hijack Manchester United's Pedro deal.  Or gazzump it, if you prefer a less tragic term.  Whether you want United to pay for his flight first, that's up to your and your team's discretion.  This message will self destruct in five seconds as soon as we find out what Twitter ITK sourced this whole thing (suspect #1: "Mohammed Taqi").

Not #MUFC, not #MCFC. Chelsea are now leading the race for Pedro. Not done yet but talks are very advanced & deal could be announced soon.

— Sergi Domínguez (@FutbolSergi) August 18, 2015

Chelsea sounded out Pedro several times but interest became concrete after the Man City battering. CFC doing it smoothly.

— Sergi Domínguez (@FutbolSergi) August 18, 2015

Sergi Dominguez isn't ITK.  He's an actual journalist with actual sources.  Also, apparently we're smooth operators.  Diamond life.

Over the last several hours, this story has spread like a wildfire.  It's been picked up by the Mail, the Telegraph, and any and all others elsewhere.  Spanish papers are starting in on it this morning as well.  Chelsea looked to have passed on Pedro several weeks ago, but apparently we might have done a u-turn — don't call it a PANIC — and now may be willing to fork out the money for the 28-year-old's buyout clause, which stands at a fairly reasonable €30m (£22m).  Or we might negotiate with Barcelona instead to avoid having to pay the extra taxes due when exercising a buyout.  Either way, somebody from our current attacking midfield corps would presumably also need to make way.

Better grab the popcorn.