Why Cucurella is making Caicedo to Chelsea tricky

Ben Jacobs

• Updated: 20 Jan 2023 14:32 GMT
• 4 min read

Marc Cucurella's summer transfer to Chelsea has made life far more difficult for the Blues in their bid to sign Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo, Ben Jacobs of CBS Sports writes for FootballTransfers...

Chelsea need to do two things. First of all, look for a midfielder, I think that's the priority, and right-back is still an area where they would like to strengthen.

Midfield is going to be key and I think that Chelsea, depending on the Jorginho situation and even Conor Gallagher who might be made available in the market should the right offer come in, might go for more than one midfielder.

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So in January, Moises Caicedo is very much on the radar, but Brighton want crazy money, and that again is where the Mudryk deal, the Cucurella deal, the failed bid for Enzo Fernandez will be used against them. And I think Cucurella is the most important one here because although he's not like Caicedo, Brighton will obviously say if we got £62 million all-in as a top-end fee for Cucurella from you, you need to surpass that otherwise it's not even a conversation.

The market value of Moises Caicedo is at least £50-55 million, so Brighton obviously would be holding out for something well above that much mid-season.

£70-75 million would be a fair but low rate, and it wouldn't remotely surprise me talking to sources of Brighton asking for £75 million or more, pushing up £80 million and Chelsea, as I understand it, are actively exploring this. Whether or not it gets done in January remains to be seen and they'd be prepared to pay a fee of at least £65 million, but possibly even more, and we’ll wait and see whether they've got the means and also the ability to get this one done in the last two weeks of the window.

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I think if they do it could take a little bit of time because Caicedo’s new agents are not even in yet so it's going to be a bit of a mad scramble, it's going to be complicated and Brighton have got no intention to sell.

Would Brighton sell to Chelsea again?

Unlike perhaps some other clubs in the market, Brighton have got a strong relationship with Chelsea and they are understanding when their player wants to move. And, I'm specifically referencing Brighton's understanding of the players wanting to leave.

Lots of Premier League clubs have got strong relationships with Chelsea because Todd Boehly is active in the market and has made sure in the previous window that he's made the necessary introductions and now he's passing things on to Paul Winstanley.

So we shouldn't see Chelsea's high spending and getting involved in a lot of transfers as necessarily aggravating the market as much as is being painted. Everybody that is dealing with Chelsea is quite wowed by their ambition, and if you're prepared to sell and you're dealing with Chelsea, you're also quite happy because you believe you're going to get a good rate.

So if the opportunism is there, people are not pushing Chelsea away. In the same way that Benfica engaged when they first said that they wouldn't on Enzo Fernandez, in the same way that Paul Barber, the Brighton CEO says if it's the right time we will sell for the right price, Chelsea may give clubs the opportunity to cash in.

So, of course, people want to engage and have a strong relationship with Chelsea, it just remains to be seen how much more business they can get done