Moisés Caicedo will be £115m bargain if Chelsea return to the elite

Signing of Mauricio Pochettino’s top target, plus Roméo Lavia, has completed the overhaul of the Stamford Bridge midfield

After 45 Premier League appearances and one of the more bewildering transfer sagas in recent memory, Moisés Caicedo is a £115m player. The midfielder’s value has risen beyond all expectations since he joined Brighton for £4.5m in February 2021 and Chelsea, who ended up having to pay more than they anticipated because of Liverpool’s actions last week, are inevitably having to deal with more criticism about their wild spending after deciding to break the British transfer record for the second time this year.

It seems there is no end to the excess. When word emerged that Chelsea were intent on holding firm during talks with Brighton, the response was that Caicedo would eventually go for at least £100m. Familiar questions about how that was possible were asked, keeping in mind the doubts over whether the club can possibly meet Financial Fair Play regulations, but the expectation always was that Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital would not let this deal collapse. Chelsea had invested too much time into wooing Caicedo, Mauricio Pochettino’s top target in midfield, and the only thing that really changed after Liverpool had an offer of £111m accepted by Brighton last Thursday was that the asking price crept up.