Brighton have warned interested parties that it will cost them a mammoth £85m to prise Moises Caicedo away from the South Coast side in the transfer windows to come.
The Ecuadorian midfielder could have joined Manchester United for just £4.5m before he moved to the AMEX Stadium, but has already garnered a reputation as a future star, and his place in the heart of his Nation’s midfield at the upcoming World Cup could further cement that.
And this reputation has led to plenty of interest, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool all reportedly keen to add him to their ranks. Liverpool even went as far as to submit a reported £42.5m bid for the 20-year-old, which then Seagulls boss Graham Potter warned would only buy his boots.
However, the Daily Mirror report that any move for the midfielder, who has missed just 12 minutes of action this season, would be met with a hefty £85m price tag by his current side, who are in a strong financial position having already sold Ben White, Marc Cucurella and Yves Bissouma for a combined £130m over the past 18 months.
Caicedo himself is seemingly in no rush to leave Brighton. “I’m very happy here at Brighton,” he said in September. “I’m not thinking about any other club than Brighton. This is the club where I am now and I will give everything for this club and to keep doing well here.”
And he could be set to stay put, as a deal worth the quoted amount would make him the second most expensive midfielder in football history, behind only Paul Pogba.
