Enzo Fernandez and THREE transfers that threaten Chelsea’s Caicedo deal

Robin Bairner

• 28 Jul 2023 08:43 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea have been battling for weeks to agree a transfer fee for Brighton star Moises Caicedo, with little apparent movement towards a deal being concluded.

Brighton boss Roberto Di Zerbi has rebuffed claims that Caicedo was promised the opportunity to leave this summer when he signed a new contract at the end of the January transfer window, while the clubs still seem distant in their valuations of the player.

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On Thursday, Chelsea reportedly made a fresh bid for the player, with an €93 million (£80m) offer rebuffed by the Seagulls.

Brighton, meanwhile, can point to three deals to justify their stance of holding out for more.

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Enzo, Cucurella and Rice dictating Brighton’s stance

The first of these arrived last summer, when Chelsea were spending freely in the transfer market. The Blues were coerced into spending €65m on Marc Cucurella from the Seagulls, pointing to the big sums that they have been willing to spend on comparatively inexperienced or unproven players.

Cucurella is the most expensive left-back in footballing history, yet he only had one Premier League season under his belt when such a lavish price was paid for him.

Chelsea reinforced this idea of being willing to splash the cash on comparatively unproven players when they broke the British transfer record to sign Enzo Fernandez for €121m in January. Just six months earlier, they might have signed the Argentine for around €10m, yet a relatively small number of high-quality performances were enough to make them pay over 10 times that figure.

Finally, Arsenal’s purchase of Declan Rice for €116m helped cement Brighton’s position. The Seagulls believe Rice is a player of an equal standing to Caicedo and are, therefore, seeking a transfer for a similar fee.

Caicedo is under contract until 2028, so Brighton can afford to be inflexible in their stance, and it will be up to Chelsea to break the resolve of their Premier League rivals if a transfer is to be completed – but these three precedents make it tricky.