You can’t hide from the truth, Real Madrid made a mistake not signing Pedri

By now, you have already grown tired of Pedri constantly giving interviews about how he went to a trial with Real Madrid but the club did not sign him. Madridistas on Twitter had field days making fun of the Barcelona standout, and you really do get the feeling that Pedri feels snubbed to this day. Despite his success with Barça and the Spanish national team, you wonder if a part of him still wishes he signed with Real.

As much as fans like to get involved in a one-upping of rivals and even use memes to talk down Pedri, all of this ego-boosting only serves to obscure a simple truth that Madridistas have to face. And that is the fact that Real Madrid absolutely, 100 percent dropped the ball on Pedri.

We have all seen him play. He is a fantastic player. Pedri provides end product, works his tail off in midfield, and dances around the pitch like the best midfielders we have seen over the years at Camp Nou. I would never expect a Madridista to like a Barcelona player, but in the interest of fairness, even the most jaded fan has to respect what Pedri can do on the football pitch.

This season, Pedri is averaging 1.5 fouls drawn per game, 1.4 dribbles completed per game, and 1.4 key passes per game. Lately, he has found his top level again after being fatigued, as he was one of the standout performers for Spain in the Euros.

Real Madrid need to improve at identifying and developing talent

I have heard Real Madrid fans try to justify this clear miss by the club with statements such as “He would have never broken through with Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, and Casemiro in the midfield.”

There is fairness to this statement, but you cannot tell me that in a vacuum of watching his talent, Real said Pedri wasn’t good enough. There is also the matter of the importance of depth. Real Madrid have signed Eduardo Camavinga and have Fede Valverde in midfield. They still want more, targeting the likes of Aurelien Tchouameni and Jude Bellingham, which is indeed wise.

Clearly, there is no such thing as turning down the opportunity to sign a talented youngster and develop him because you are worried about the current starters. Talent is talent. Real Madrid had no problem selling great young players like Theo Hernandez, Sergio Reguilon, and Achraf Hakimi after developing them. I am not saying doing the same with Pedri would have been advisable, but it’s better to get 30 million euros from someone than, you know, telling the next big thing to pack his bags and go home.

Real Madrid’s scouting, player development, and talent evaluation have been dubious at times in recent years, hence why they have struggled in the Champions League over the past few years since losing Cristiano Ronaldo. They did not take “the future” seriously enough, which led to some bad signings in 2019 and stagnation when they should have had built-in depth and the ability to refresh their squad. Nobody is replacing Ronaldo immediately, sure, but it says something that Real have had issues around the pitch and have struggled to find appropriate fits for important depth roles.

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Meanwhile, Pedri is flourishing for a rival, when he could have joined Real Madrid years ago. There’s no use in playing the “What if?” game, to be honest, and I don’t think Madridistas should be crying about missing out on Pedri by any means. It’s not productive. We do, however, need to be honest when Madrid fails in order to push for better decisions in the future, and in the way the team has treated the likes of Miguel Gutierrez, Antonio Blanco, Sergio Arribas, and Peter Federico this season as already-signed standouts to Castilla, you have to wonder if they have actually learned anything at all.