Chelsea are trying to beat Liverpool to the signing of Brighton’s Moisés Caicedo and are closing in on another midfield addition after bidding £55m for Southampton’s Roméo Lavia.
Liverpool had a £110m offer for Caicedo accepted by Brighton on Thursday night and wanted to wrap the deal up quickly on Friday. They had plans for the midfielder to travel to Merseyside for a medical and discuss personal terms before completing a move that would make the Ecuador international the most expensive player in the history of English football.
However, Chelsea responded by refusing to give up their pursuit of the 21-year-old, their top summer target, and are ready to bid more than £110m to land him. Caicedo, who has spent the past 48 hours in London, is being offered bigger wages by Chelsea and wants to join Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
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The situation remains fluid and has also taken in the Stamford Bridge club muscling in on Liverpool’s move for Lavia. Liverpool have had multiple bids turned down for the 19-year-old and have now seen Chelsea go over Southampton’s £50m asking price. Chelsea’s priority remains Caicedo but a figure involved in the Lavia deal suggested they could continue their astonishing spending under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership by signing both players.
Chelsea were still working on a bid for Caicedo on Friday night and there have been suggestions that the deal could go either way, even though there have been indications the player has told Liverpool he will not join them. Chelsea are favourites but a source cautioned that they spent much of Friday trying to make the deal work.
It was reported on Friday night that Liverpool are considering walking away from trying to sign Caicedo given Chelsea’s ongoing pursuit of the player and his apparent desire to join them.
On a frantic day of activity Chelsea’s £20m move for the Leeds midfielder Tyler Adams collapsed. Adams had undergone a medical, only for talks with Chelsea to break down at the last minute. In a surprising twist it has emerged the USA international, who is out with a hamstring injury, could join Brighton.
The sense is that Chelsea, who are also aiming to sign the Crystal Palace winger Michael Olise, want to divert funds towards their move for Caicedo. Brighton have been holding out for £100m for Caicedo, arguing that the benchmark for a midfielder of his talent was set by West Ham selling Declan Rice to Arsenal for £105m this summer and Chelsea signing Enzo Fernández for £106.8m in January.
Chelsea have spent heavily under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership and the expectation has long been that they would spend big again on Caicedo. But they have been trying to negotiate a lower fee and that left room for a rival bid, which materialised after Brighton set a deadline of midnight on Thursday for offers and had said they would take the highest one. Chelsea bid up to £100m but were gazumped by Liverpool.
“I can confirm the deal with [Brighton] is agreed, whatever that means because we want the player and not any kind of agreement – we will see,” Jürgen Klopp said. “We are a club that doesn’t have endless resources.”
Klopp previously said he would not pay £100m for a player. “Everything changes,” he said on Friday. “Do I like it? No. But did I realise I was wrong? Definitely. It is not great but it is the way it goes. It will not change around again. Saudi Arabia will not help. We as a club have to try and make sure with our resources we get the best possible team together … if people want to throw my quotes from five or six years ago, absolutely no problem.”
Chelsea, who need to strengthen in midfield after losing Mason Mount, N’Golo Kanté, Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic this year, host Liverpool on Sunday.
The battle off the pitch will add to the narrative. Liverpool are also strengthening in midfield, having lost Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho. They have signed Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton and Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig, and have been trying to sign Lavia. Chelsea have failed with a £48m bid for Lavia, who is valued at £50m.
Brighton’s manager, Roberto De Zerbi, said he had “already forgotten Moisés” as he prepared for Saturday’s game against Luton. “The big clubs can buy the players but they can’t buy our soul and our spirit,” he said. “That’s not on the market and this is more important than the players when they leave.”
Pochettino gave little away on Caicedo but revealed Chelsea were looking for attacking reinforcements after Christopher Nkunku had surgery on a knee injury this week. Nkunku is expected to be out for 16 weeks. “We are going to miss one player like this,” Pochettino said. “The club is working, trying to find a solution, maybe short term, medium and long term to add the right profile for the team to perform for now.”
Chelsea are responding by stepping up their interest in Olise. His contract contains a release clause higher than the widely reported £35m.
Chelsea are also tracking Ajax’s Mohammed Kudus, who is a target for Brighton. Fulham are hopeful of clinching a deal to sign Callum Hudson-Odoi after making a new bid for the Chelsea winger. Hudson-Odoi has been waiting for permission to leave his boyhood club and wants to join Fulham.
Klopp has ruled out Thiago Alcântara joining the Liverpool exodus to Saudi Arabia and insisted the midfielder would make a valuable contribution this season.
Thiago, who is currently recovering from hip surgery, has been linked with a £10m transfer to Al-Ahli. Liverpool, however, have not received an offer from the Saudi Pro League club and Klopp believes the 32-year-old’s experience will assume greater importance following the departures of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita.
“Honestly, there is nothing. Nobody asked,” Klopp said. “Thiago came in and asked about his role and we spoke. Super experienced player, he stepped up in that department. He has only been in team training for a week but he is going to be very helpful for us.”
