How Brighton secured a £115m fee from Chelsea for Caicedo

Everybody knows that Brighton are good in the transfer market. But even by the high standards of Tony Bloom, securing a fee of £115 million from Chelsea for Moises Caicedo was an extraordinary piece of business.

Caicedo is officially the third most expensive footballer of all time after Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. Paris Saint Germain paid £198 million and £163 million to Barcelona and Monaco respectively for those two forwards.

In terms of transfers involving English clubs, Caicedo sets two new records. Brighton are the recipients of the biggest fee ever received by an English club for a player, eclipsing the £105 million Liverpool raked in from Barcelona for Philippe Coutinho in 2018.

Caicedo also becomes the most expensive signing made by any English club, breaking a record set by Chelsea in January when Enzo Fernandez arrived at Stamford Bridge from Benfica for £106.8 million.

Almost as important as the money is that it ends the longest running transfer saga in world football. Speculation has swirled around Caicedo for eight months, ever since Chelsea first put in a piss-taking January bid of £55 million.

Here is the story of how Chelsea ended up paying more than double that initial offer, a drama with so many twists and turns that Channel 4 are already turning it into a three part drama. Probably.

January 2023: Chelsea bid £55 million for Caicedo
The saga began back in January when Chelsea came in with a £55 million bid for Caicedo. This was particularly derisory on its own, let alone before you consider the fact that Blues head coach Graham Potter had publicly valued Caicedo at £100 million just five months earlier when Brighton manager.

Nobody quite knew what Caicedo had done to wipe £45 million off his value in the time which had passed between Glow Up Graham slithering off to Stamford Bridge and attempting to instigate a reunion.

Needless to say, Chelsea were told in no uncertain terms where to go. Anyone hoping that would be the end of interest in Caicedo during January was about to be very disappointed.

January 2023: Arsenal bid £60 million for Caicedo
Next came the turn of Premier League leaders Arsenal to make a bid of £60 million. Not only did Brighton reject this, but a source at the club told WAB at the time that the Gunners were informed Caicedo would not be sold in January no matter what fee was offered.

The Albion were on the hunt for European football for the first time in their history and had a decent chance of going all the way to Wembley in the FA Cup. Both were more important than any amount of money and so Arsenal should not bid again.

January 2023: Statement appears on Caicedo’s Instagram asking Brighton to sell him
A nice, quiet Friday night with four days of the January transfer window remaining was ruined when all hell broke lose on Caicedo’s Instagram page, where his agent posted a bizarre statement begging Brighton to sell to Arsenal.

It was now Caicedo’s dream to join the Gunners, even though the world and his wife knew he was a boyhood Manchester United fan. Amazing what a whiff of cash can do.

The Albion played a blinder in response. Caicedo was told to stay away from training until February 1st, denying him the chance to escalate the situation by going on strike.

January 2023: Arsenal bid £70 million for Caicedo
All those words from Brighton to Arsenal fell on deaf ears as within 24 hours of Caicedo’s statement, the Gunners came back with a £70 million offer.

To say this alongside the timing of the Instagram statement and the general unsettling of Caicedo did not impress the powers that be at the Amex would be an understatement.

The Albion and Arsenal used to share a good relationship having negotiated deals for Maty Ryan, Ben White and Leandro Trossard over the previous two years.

All that was undone by the Gunners behaviour. Brighton were said to be so angered they are now apparently reluctant to deal with Arsenal. Unlucky.

January 2023: Arsenal fans predict grim future for Brighton
Arsenal fans took the Albion’s refusal to sell in January particularly well… by having a complete and utter meltdown about it.

By far and away the best reaction was that Caicedo should consider suing Brighton under modern slavery legislation to force through a move to the Emirates.

Less inventive were those Gunners supporters who predicted keeping an unhappy player against his will would cause Caicedo to go on strike, rocking the boat and destroying team spirit at Brighton.

This would subsequently ruin the Albion’s hopes of European football whilst Arsenal went onto lift the Premier League title. Remind me again how that one worked out?

March 2023: Caicedo signs new Brighton contract
Ah yes, that’s right. Arsenal went onto be overhauled by Manchester City in the championship race, whilst Caicedo responded to not getting his “dream move” to the Emirates by being even better in the second half of the season than he had in the first.

Come March, he even signed a new Brighton contract. This reflected Caicedo’s status as one of the most important players at the Albion, vastly improving his wages beyond the rumoured 75 pence and a packet of Skips per week he had previously been on.

Contrary to popular belief, no informal agreement was struck between Caicedo and the club that he would be sold for a certain fee in the summer when the deal was signed. Let alone an actual release clause.

Some might say his representatives were so desperate to get their share from negotiating a new contract that they overlooked such obvious details as making a future move for their client easier.

June 2023: Chelsea bid £60 million for Caicedo
Summer arrived and Chelsea reignited their interest in Caicedo with one of the most braindead offers of a transfer fee in recent history.

Thinking they would get anywhere with a bid of £60 million six months after Brighton had turned down £70 million – with Caicedo now a better player than in January and on a longer term contact – can only be explained by some seriously strong magic mushroom consumption.

Brighton said no. Of course they did. More interestingly, off-the-record briefings let it become widely reported that a club who never set an asking price for a player would let Caicedo move for a fee of £100 million.

They could knock that price down by including Levi Colwill in the deal. Chelsea now had a clear route to a deal mapped out in front of them. The question became what would they do with that information?

July 2023: Chelsea bid £70 million for Caicedo
The answer was completely ignore it and submit a second bid of £70 million for Caicedo. Brighton again said no. What made this whole episode particularly bizarre was that Paul Winstanley was involved in negotiations for Chelsea.

Having worked for the Albion for over eight years, you might have expected him to have some inkling of how Tony Bloom operates.

Bloom is a shrewd negotiator, he always gets the best deal and he cannot be bluffed; you do not make millions as a professional gambler and poker player otherwise.

Chelsea and Winstanley knew who they were dealing with. Only a bid of £100 million would secure Caicedo. The question remained what would they do with that information?

July 2023: Chelsea bid £80 million for Caicedo
And the answer remained completely ignore it and submit a third bid of £80 million for Caicedo. Brighton instantly said no, despite Fabrizio Romano and Ben Jacobs saying such a figure would result in a deal being struck.

Chelsea fans had by this point become even more insufferable than Arsenal supporters in January. They went from confidently predicting the Albion could never turn down £80 million from a two times winner of the Champions League to becoming incandescent with rage that those two Champions League trophies were not helping them bully Bloom into a sale.

By this point, it all had become rather tedious. Chelsea just needed to pay the £100 million fee for Caicedo and we could all get on with our lives. But then…

August 2023: Unnamed club bids £80 million for Caicedo
With Caicedo’s representatives feeding information to the likes of Romano to try and force a deal over the line, Brighton-friendly journalists suddenly had their first exclusive of the summer saga.

Andy Naylor broke it, revealing an unnamed club had bid £80 million for Caicedo. Brighton had turned it down. Whether the bid ever existed or who the unnamed club were we may never know. Multiple sources though confirmed it was not Liverpool.

If Brighton made the story up and fed it to their mouthpieces in the hope of forcing Chelsea to finally offer £100 million or to spark a bidding war, then it turned out to be an overwhelmingly successful play.

August 2023: Liverpool bid £111 million for Caicedo
Almost out of nowhere, somebody finally met Brighton’s £100 million valuation of Caicedo… and it wasn’t Chelsea. Liverpool arrived on the scene offering a fee of £111 million.

The Albion duly accepted. Caicedo to the Reds was on and looked a much better fit for the player. Liverpool are not a total basket case of a club unlike Chelsea and Caicedo would be reunited with his Brighton midfield partner in crime at Anfield, Alexis Mac Allister.

Caicedo – or more likely, his agent – had different ideas, however.

August 2023: Caicedo does not want to talk to Liverpool
On the same day Brighton thought they had struck a deal over a £111 million fee with Liverpool for Caicedo, the player said he had no interest in a move to Merseyside.

The boyhood United fan whose January dream had been a move to Arsenal now only wanted his dream move to Chelsea. Amazing what a whiff of cash can do.

Chelsea fans rejoiced. Liverpool fans despaired. Brighton fans and Bloom knew it could mean only one thing. Chelsea would now have to outbid Liverpool, otherwise Caicedo was stuck at the Amex all the time he refused to negotiate with the Reds.

A fee in excess of £100 million was now a certainty.

August 2023: Chelsea bid £115 million for Caicedo
Deep, deep joy after so many months of dicking around. Chelsea, their fans, Romano, Jacobs and the rest had been adamant the Blues would never pay £100 million for Caicedo. And they were right. The actual fee for Caicedo became £115 million with a generous sell on clause included.

The most hilarious part about it all is that Chelsea could have just paid £100 million as soon as the valuation became publicly known in June. Caicedo would have been integrated far quicker into Mauricio Pochettino’s squad with a full pre-season as a Blue under his belt.

They instead thought they would wear Bloom down to accepting less than £100 million. In the end, that wearing down instead added at least another £15 million to the bill.

It could prove most costly yet if Real Madrid sign Caicedo for an even heftier fee in a few years, and Brighton are entitled to a slice of the pie thanks to the sell on clause Chelsea had been as confident of avoiding as they were about bullying the Albion into a lesser sale.

There was never a chance of that. Bloom and Brighton win in the transfer market. Again.