Moises Caicedo leaving Brighton this summer would be a sale too far

First they came for Yves Bissouma, and I said nothing. Then they came for Marc Cucurella, and I said nothing. Then they came for Moises Caicedo and… actually, Brighton should not sell the Ecuadorian to Manchester United or anyone else this summer unless the fee is out of this world.

We are talking £100 million plus. A genuine, earth-shattering amount of money is the only offer which should have Tony Bloom raising an eyebrow.

Caicedo is too important and the Albion have only just begun scratching the surface of his talent. For him to depart after just three months as a Premier League regular and less than 20 games would be devastating.

The sales of both Bissouma and Cucurella could be justified. Bissouma had one year left on his contract and had earned the right to go and play Champions League football.

Cucurella meanwhile had been outstanding in winning Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Season. Once Chelsea made it clear they were willing to pay a world record fee for a full back, selling to a club who will compete at the top table of European football and challenge for trophies became more stomachable.

There are a myriad of reasons why Brighton should not be considering selling Caicedo this summer. The first and perhaps most surprising is because at this moment in time, staying with the Albion looks a better career option than moving to Man United.

Old Trafford is a cesspit of hate right now. The atmosphere is volatile and United look years away from winning silverware.

Good players with more experience than Caicedo have moved to United and found the environment seriously impacting their form.

What is better for Caicedo right now as he continues to learn the ropes in the Premier League? Being abused by United fans as they struggle to even qualify for the Europa Conference and getting caught up in the anti-Glazer mood that is poisoning a once-great club?

Or playing every week for the Albion, becoming universally loved by Seagulls supporters and continuing to develop into the world class player anyone who has watched him so far knows he is capable of becoming?

That this is the case 25 years to the week that Brighton kicked off the 1997-98 in the bottom division playing home games at Gillingham is astonishing. It is a sign of both how far Brighton have come and how far United have fallen.

The Albion have a duty of care to Caicedo to protect him from moving to Old Trafford. As a boyhood United fan, he might not see it that way.

What are the chances then of Cacicedo angling for a move, ala Cucurella? It has been widely reported that Caicedo’s family play a major role in his representation, unlike Cucurella whose money-grabbing agent’s eyes lit up at the first sign of interest from City.

Caicedo should therefore have better advice than Cucurella received. Cold, hard cash may not come into the equation quite as much as it dominated the Cucurella Transfer Saga. We pray.

The Albion can justifiably point to their own selfish reasons for not allowing Caicedo to move this summer. A lot of time and effort went into cutting through the spider web of third party ownership to bring him to England.

That was time and effort United could not be bothered to put in. They were famously in negotiations to sign Caicedo before Brighton arrived on the scene, until they pulled out with one United official describing trying to do a deal as a “cluster****”.

Why should Brighton do all the hard and dirty work to untangle Caicedo so he could play in Europe, only to then sell him to United after 15 Premier League appearances?

It is the equivalent of spending months slowly convincing a girl to go on a date with you, finally getting to the Harvester and then her fucking off to Miller & Carter with another bloke before you have even had the chance to raid the salad bar.

The difference Caicedo has made to the team is another reason not to sell. Before his Premier League debut away at Arsenal on Grand National Day, Brighton had been going like a three legged donkey rather than a national hunt thoroughbred horse.

Six defeats in a row had been followed by a tame 0-0 draw with a ghastly Norwich outfit. Caicedo was handed a surprise start at the Emirates and the Albion won 2-1 against an in-form Gunners side who looked set to finish in the top four.

Caicedo’s record reads 10 Premier League games. Six wins over Arsenal, Spurs, Wolves, West Ham and United twice. Three draws against Southampton, The Leeds United and Newcastle. One defeat to Manchester City.

It is no exaggeration to say that since Graham Potter brought Caicedo into his starting XI, Brighton have been transformed. Would the Albion’s new-found winning formula be quite so effective without Caicedo underpinning it in the engine room?

Brighton had endured spells of being crap with Cucurella and Bissouma in the side. Although disappointing, their departures were never viewed as having the potential to seriously upset the something special the Albion looked to be building in the final eight games of 2021-22.

Selling two key players is arguably the limit for any club who aspires to keep moving forward. If Brighton were to flog Bissouma, Cucurella and Caicedo in one summer, then you risk all the good work of last season being undone very quickly.

And that is without even considering the potential sale of Neal Maupay, the Albion’s top scorer of the past three seasons and only proven Premier League striker without a questionable injury record (sorry Dat Guy, you need to play a few more months yet to shake the fitness doubts).

It would be a dangerous game to play in a season where there are no real standout candidates for relegation, other than Plucky Little Bournemouth. The Albion will not want to get sucked back into a dogfight near the bottom having finally escaped the clutches of such dramas at the fifth year of asking.

Money does however make the world go around and it has the power to trump any footballing considerations. But here is the thing about Caicedo – most of us seem to think that whatever he is worth now, his value will be a lot more this time next year.

Remember how much Bissouma improved between January 2020 and the end of the 2020-21 season after 18 months as a Premier League regular?

If Caicedo even matches that rate of improvement – and everything we have seen so far suggests he is a better talent than Bissouma and so likely to eclipse it – imagine how good he will be by the summer of 2023?

Then there is the World Cup. Ecuador are being talked about as dark horses in Qatar and Caicedo is the heart of their young, talented and exciting team.

If he impresses at the tournament, then his value is going to skyrocket. It could end up making the £62 million received for Cucurella look like a 99p pint of Ruddles Ale in Wetherspoons on George Street.

Caicedo has the potential to be the greatest player we have ever seen in a Brighton shirt. If he stays at the Albion for this season, then he will have the pick of Europe’s clubs desperate to make him theirs next summer.

He will not be stuck at Manchester United, wondering where it all went wrong and written off by supporters who think a crisis is drawing a home game.

The good thing is that Bloom rarely gets these things wrong. And no Brighton fan can get too upset or annoyed with whatever path he takes, given the debt of gratitude we owe him for where the Albion are today. £427 million worth of debt, to be precise.

In Bloom we trust. But the case for keeping Caicedo is as strong as you will find. One more year of Moises continuing to part the red sea, please. Then let him free.