Newcastle United now look certain to miss out on Joao Pedro as Chelsea close in on deal as per David Ornstein

As looked likely to happen, Chelsea now appear to have beaten Newcastle United to the signing of Brighton and Hove Albion star Joao Pedro.

Both Chelsea and Newcastle lodged bids for the Brazil forward in the week, and both were refused, but while Newcastle contemplated an improved offer, Chelsea went straight back with a bid that now appears to have been accepted by Brighton.

According to The Athletic's David Ornstein, personal terms have all been agreed, and a medical is being booked ahead of Joao Pedro signing a seven-year contract at Stamford Bridge.

As Eddie Howe begs his board to deliver him two quality players for each position, Chelsea now has approximately nine per position. What is going on?

We can get past not signing João Pedro, but it would be easier if he were going literally anywhere else

We're not so much bitter about losing out on João Pedro. He would have been a good signing, we do not doubt that, but we also reckon we could find someone else just as good for the same, or less money than we bid in midweek.

What irks us is that Chelsea have now spent over £1.5bn on transfers since Todd Boehly took over, and yet PSR hasn't touched them because they know how to game the system. If truth be told, our problem with Chelsea is simply jealousy - who wouldn't like to be like them in the transfer market and get away with everything?

Even more annoying is that they have now beaten us to two potential strikers this summer - how must Liam Delap be feeling now that they've gone out and signed another forward?

Imagine your club just going out and signing a player they want. How must that feel?

Once Chelsea got involved with the João Pedro deal, it was inevitable where he was going to end up given how it was public knowledge that he wanted to play in London, so it's not like we didn't see this one coming.

I often wonder what it must be like being a Chelsea fan.

It's painful as a Newcastle fan watching us scramble around in the transfer market without a clue, while Chelsea just look at a player, decide they want him and then go get him. Is that even fun? Where's the tension?

Hopefully, now Newcastle will move on to another target, but more importantly, they'll realise that holding off and overthinking everything only leads to missing out on signings.