CHELSEA have been handed a boost in their pursuit of Moises Caicedo, after Roberto de Zerbi admitted it would be difficult for Brighton to keep a hold of him.
Caicedo has been linked to Chelsea in a transfer which could see them shell out between £65-£75million.
The 21-year-old Ecuadorian has taken the Premier League by storm since stepping into the Brighton set-up initially under now-Chelsea boss Graham Potter.
Under current manager De Zerbi, Caicedo’s development has continued at a rapid pace, with Brighton continuing to march up the table.
However, this success has garnered interest from some major financial powerhouses, namely Chelsea.
With the Blues already reportedly seeing a £65m bid turned down for the midfielder, De Zerbi has admitted the best he can hope for is for Caicedo to see out the season with them.
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He said: “He is very important for us, it would be difficult to change with another player now.
“I hope he finishes the season with us, but you know in the transfer market it is always difficult to give you one answer.
“When there are some bigger teams and they want one of our players, it is good news for us.
“The best solution for us is he can finish the season with us.
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“Next summer, for him, is better to change team.”
Brighton have become serial recruiters of top talent which is then flipped for a huge profit margin, as evidenced by sales such as Marc Cucurella, Ben White and most recently Leandro Trossard.
Trossard arrived at the Amex Stadium in 2019 for £18m, but today was announced as a new Arsenal player having been sold for £27m.
The respective fees they got for Cucurella and White saw Brighton receive more money than what it cost them to build their stadium.
And Caicedo is set to be the next name on that list of profitable acquisitions by the club after he cost them just £5m.
Chelsea have already splashed out over £150m on Myhkailo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos this window, while also paying £10m for Joao Felix’s loan.
Overall, their spending under Todd Boehly has seen them spend almost £400m, with a clever football financing tactic to get past Financial Fair Play known as amortisation.
However, the spending is not set to end there, with the imminent arrival of Noni Madueke from PSV and the interest in Caicedo.
And while De Zerbi hopes to keep Caicedo this month, he admitted a summer move will hinge on him keeping up his performances.
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He added: “I don’t know (on summer transfer).
“But if Caicedo continues to play like this – like the last games – it is possible he can leave for another team.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
