Moises Caicedo has clearly been Chelsea’s number one midfield target all summer, at least since it became clear that Declan Rice wasn’t going to consider a move to Stamford Bridge this summer.
So why haven’t we made an official bid yet? Our hesitance is giving other teams the chance to join the chase. According to Dharmesh Sheth on GiveMeSport, it’s because the Blues want to conclude as many of their sales as possible in order to know exactly what their budget it.
It’s a sensible policy – but this delay might be costing us. We have concluded many of these sales already, so surely at this point we have a strong indication of where we stand. Kalidou Koulibaly, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante and Edouard Mendy are off the books, and Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech look set to join them in the next 48 hours.
If Sheth is right and our delay has simply been because we’re raising funds, our first official offer Caicedo should go in shortly after that, at some point this weekend.
It may too late – today we’ve heard that Manchester United are now in the race, and they have the potential to raise the midfielder’s price considerably. While it’s nice to have all our ducks in a row – and the sporting directors will be delighted to have got so many of these unwanted players off our books so quickly – that caution may end up costing us millions on our incoming deals.