‘The Zidane of Chelsea’ named Transfer Flop of the Season

Carlo Garganese

• 31 Jan 2024 14:20 GMT
• 3 min read

Ally McCoist has labelled Moises Caicedo as his flop of the season, but the Chelsea midfielder has been compared to Zinedine Zidane by Mauricio Pochettino.

Chelsea broke the British transfer record when signing Moises Caicedo from Brighton for €135 million in the summer of 2023.

The Blues had been involved in a gruelling summer-long transfer saga - also featuring Liverpool - before they finally got their man.

However, the wait wasn't worth it a he endured a disastrous debut against West Ham, and things have not improved since.

Former Rangers and Scotland attacker McCoist believes that Caicedo has been the worst signing of the season.

What did McCoist and Pochettino say?

“Andre Onana has been nothing like the signing everyone thought he would be for Manchester United, but I’m not giving him ‘flop of the season so far’, I think that’s ever so slightly harsh,” McCoist told TalkSport.

“But Moises Caicedo, I saw him a couple of times, particularly at Old Trafford with Enzo Fernandez in the middle of the park, and both of them were, for a quarter of a billion pounds, not great… Caicedo would certainly get my vote over Onana.

“Rasmus Hojlund? No chance – Caicedo and Onana would get it ahead of him. I know Hojlund hasn’t been scoring as regularly, particularly domestically, as Man United fans would want, but there’s a willingness there, there’s an eagerness there, a desire, which a lot of the United fans, the majority if not all of them, can see. I’m settling on Moises Caicedo!”

Despite the harsh words from McCoist, Caicedo has been defended by his Chelsea manager Pochettino.

The Argentine boss has compared Caicedo’s move to the world record transfer of Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid from Juventus in the summer of 2021.

“Sometimes the amount you pay is because they are going to come and the day after they will perform, but now you want to sign a good player with the potential to be one of the best in their position,” Pochettino said.

“Remember when [Zinedine] Zidane or Kaka went to Real Madrid – they paid a big amount of money. Zidane was 26 or 27 [he was 29].

“I think it took seven or eight months for him to perform because expectation is massive and adaptation is difficult. The pressure is massive.”

Chelsea are next in action on Wednesday when they play Liverpool at Anfield.