Chelsea could be about to snatch away Liverpool’s expected marquee signing, Moisés Caicedo, at the eleventh hour.
Negotiations for the Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder went down to the wire yesterday, according to reports, with Liverpool seemingly securing the player for £110m.
But Chelsea are reportedly still in the hunt, after it was widely reported that the London club are ready to bid more than £110m for the Ecuador international.
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Caicedo is said to prefer Chelsea, after they made him their top summer transfer target.
Chelsea have been frontrunners for Caicedo for much of the summer and submitted an offer worth up to £100m on Thursday.
But Liverpool stunned the mid-table side by muscling in with a higher offer for the 21-year-old.
The situation remained fast-moving on Friday afternoon. Liverpool’s manager, Jürgen Klopp, said: “I can confirm the deal with [Brighton] is agreed, whatever that means because we want the player and not any kind of agreement – we will see.”
“We are a club that doesn’t have endless resources, we didn’t expect a couple of things happening in the summer, like [Jordan] Henderson and Fabinho [leaving], stuff like this.
“We didn’t think about that before the summer, to be honest, and then it happened. We gave [attempting to sign Jude Bellingham] a go and the club was really stretched. We will see [what happens with Caicedo].”
Klopp has said in the past that he would not pay £100m for a player, but on Friday added: “Everything changes. Do I like it? No. But did I realise I was wrong? Definitely.
“It is not great but it is the way it goes. It will not change around again. Saudi Arabia will not help. We as a club have to try and make sure with our resources we get the best possible team together … If people want to throw my quotes from five or six years ago, absolutely no problem.”
Both teams are seeking to strengthen their midfield before the start of the Premier League season. Chelsea have already lost Mason Mount, N’Golo Kanté, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic before the start of the season.
Liverpool, meanwhile, lost Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho. They have signed Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton and Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig.
The two sides play on Sunday in their first game of the new season. Which team sheet Caicedo will be named on remains to be seen.
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