Arsenal have lodged a £60 million offer for Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo, reports Fabrizio Romano.
The Seagulls, who have already rejected a lower offer from Chelsea for the Ecuador international, have rebuffed the approach.
Caicedo moved to the Amex Stadium from homeland side Independiente del Valle for €5 million in 2021 and has since spent six months on loan at Belgian side Beerschot.
He eventually established himself as a regular in the heart of Graham Potter’s midfield in the closing months of last season and has retained his place under Roberto De Zerbi. He featured in all three of his country’s World Cup matches.
EXCLUSIVE: Arsenal have submitted £60m bid to sign Moises Caicedo as new midfielder 🚨⚪️🔴 #AFC
Chelsea had £55m verbal proposal rejected this January as Brighton hope to keep the player — but Arsenal are now pushing.
Negotiations enter into key stages for Caicedo’s future. pic.twitter.com/WZp3RKRdbx
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 27, 2023
The 21-year-old said earlier in the week that he’s focused on Brighton but a recent change of agent suggests he’s priming himself for a move sooner rather than later. He has two-and-a-half years left on his current deal.
While Mikel Arteta’s interest may well be driven by a short-term need to provide cover for Thomas Partey, especially with rumours circulating that Mohamed Elneny has suffered a serious knee injury, there’s no denying it’s a position we need to strengthen in the long-term with Partey and Xhaka not getting any younger.
Arsenal have signed Ben White and Leandro Trossard from Brighton in the very recent past and are well aware that chairman Tony Bloom is no pushover in negotiations.
Given the south coast outfit have no reason to sell, it’s fair to say this will be a very tricky deal for the Gunners to complete, especially if Todd Boehly sticks his oar in again. All the same, just being in the mix feels like a statement of intent right now.
Arsenal mean business!
We’ll see. It’s a lot of money. I suspect that if it’s true there’s possibly an slight element of desperation creeping in given the transfer clock is ticking down rapidly and we’re clearly short in midfield now. The Mudryk saga was a big setback as it took so much time (out of the transfer window) and we don’t appear to be getting anywhere with other options – if there really are any. Also, Brighton don’t need to sell as the article mentions. If they wait until summer they may we’ll get more in a “proper” auction. Last, but not least,… Read more »
Can we please get more mentions of the Mud-reek guy. I think the more I see him mentioned, the more I hate him and Chelsea and I love hating those lot
He’s in a neck and neck race with Ederson for the “neck tattoos so bad it hurts your eyes, look away now” award.
Moneyryk!!!
Love the nickname Mud-reek lol really should be taken on the the AFC fan base 👍
Given the transfer rules have been changed to stop Chelsea spreading payments out over 8 years by giving longer contracts following the Mudryk fiasco, they’re no longer going to be able to outbid us so easily.
Shame that didn’t happen sooner really.
This only comes into effect by next season’s window I believe. Chelsea from my understanding can still take full advantage in this window.
You’re quite right about the (perfectly legal) loophole being closed but I think that they’ll still be able to outbid us “conventionally”, if they really want to. The loophole was a relatively easy way for bringing in lots of players quickly and remaining within FFP guidelines (shame other clubs didn’t think of it really). However, Chelsea have managed to stay within the guidelines over many seasons anyway because despite buying heavily/expensively, they have (under the previous owner) a pretty good record of selling players as well. We’ll have to see how they do in the summer window but if they… Read more »
There is a reason most clubs haven’t done this. The “loophole” had a gigantic drawback for most clubs–the commitment to pay (high) wages to players makes it very difficult to sell them on. I say “most clubs” because, while players on long contracts at high wages matters to almost every normal club including Arsenal, it’s irrelevant if you don’t care about money because you own the club for other reasons. That was the case with Abramovitch but I am certain it is not true of the new owners. Second, Chelsea did have smart football people who–with the advantage of huge… Read more »
Of all the clubs Chelsea should better.. Winston Bogarde milked them thoroughly for four years in which he played just 11 times. Hope atleast one of these long term signings does that to them again.
Bids been rejected according to Sky. There is no desperation in this move. Quality player. Very much worth the hype. I hope (and am quietly confident) that we have other irons in the fire if this doesn’t work out. But you’re right – time is running out.
I’m guessing Mo’s out for the season 🤔
I hope he gets a PL medal. Otherwise, do an Aguero, or get him to replace Gunnersaurus till the end of the season.
Whether it’s fallen through or not, I’m not sure Arsenal would now be reportedly taking the time to bid a huge £60m for a player that wasn’t on the radar at all as far as I can see – but from the article doesn’t look like an obvious candidate for a move – if the window didn’t close next week. There are almost certainly other irons in the fire but it depends on how hot they are. Selling clubs have an increasing advantage the closer the deadline gets. Our need to buy is getting greater than their need to sell… Read more »
Mikel Arteta was also a desperation buy, look where it got us.
Shits getting spensive…
Luckily he costs you nothing Johnny…
Oh.
So they don’t pass a bucket around at games?
I knew my mate was lying.
According to Ornstein it has been rejected. That didn’t last long.
To be fair to Bloom, he’d be shit chairman if he accepted Arsenal’s opening bid.
Says they don’t want to sell him. 60m seems a fair price already.
Will see what happens I guess.
Not sure what transfer news I WAS expecting today, but it wasn’t this.
Stan is on an unstoppable spree!
Stating the obvious here but the best way to run a club is to identify these talents when they are valued at 5 million two years ago. Spending 60 million on that same player now is not a sustainable business model. In other words, be more like Brighton and less like Chel$ea. Good scouting is the key.
Not sure that’s necessarily true. If players are coming in at the £60m price point but we only buy big every few years, with less expensive players in between, and the odd sale, that’s perfectly sustainable (as long as we win some trophies and increase our revenues).
It’s just a balancing act. Take a few risks on £5m players, predominantly middle of the park, young, £20-30m (as we have been doing), with the odd big blowout on a £50-70m player.
I don’t want us to get into £100m territory, that just seems unpalatable.. Unless it’s for Bellingham.
Sure, but the 5 million player won’t get on the team sheet for two years, so you’ll have to send him on loan.
We’ve done something like that with Saliba and it’s worked, but now he’s almost at the end of his contract.
It’s a spectrum, not a binary.
The Great Brighton Raid of January 2023
That’s some profit Brighton are turning down!
Perhaps they think they can make a bigger one in the summer?
they are having a good go at Europa League spot with Sp*rs being so shxt
Wishful thinking but this has to be misdirection by Edu, right?
“Look here Boelhy.. now who’s a good boy. here boy here here… yes dont you want this?dont you just want this sooo soo much. How much do you want it for? 60, 70??”
Meanwhile we do a deal for someone we actually want?
Edu can get commission from every club who manages to sell a player to Chelsea on an “interest from Arsenal” price.
If true then that’s a surprise. However, given recent experience it’s probably better to wait and see than getting too excited now.
Why put in a bid knowing fully well it will be rejected? Unless this is misdirection to put that Boehly cunt off our trail while we sign up our primary target this don’t make any sense. Please Edu, we no get time to fart around.
If you’ve never put in a bid you know will be rejected you’ve probably not been involved with many negotiations
Presumably means no Rice transfer in the summer. Not sure how I feel about that but regardless I think it would be criminal not to get a midfielder in this month.
I have a feeling Rice is being looked at for the Xhaka role (competition/understudy). And that we’ll buy a DM in addition to Rice. Xhaka and Partey need to be replaced in the long run, and buying players now who can learn our system while pushing the two will be a smart bit of business.
Test west ham’s resolve and put a bid in for rice now
If Rice goes now, West Ham might end up relegated at the end of the season. They won’t sell.
I was really hoping West Ham would have won a few games quickly, so that they were completely safe but also too far from the European places to challenge. I cannot imagine selling Rice, at whatever price, if it risks relegation (and ensures a supporters’ rebellion).
Still think he’s heading to chelski
Brighton are never going to accept this bid, I actually half think this might just be a ploy to distract Boehly and Chelsea from our real target, whoever that might be.
It’s a sound strategy to divert attention from our real target.
We’ve been linked with Rice but not with Bellingham, I wonder if we’re going for him at all, he would suit this team really nicely.
Almost certainly the most expensive player in world football (of those who their club might actually sell).
There was news that Arsenal had offered to pay the release clause of Zubimendi (£52 million). And Real Sociedad had no choice but to sell. However, Zubimendi wants to stay till the summer.
Is Zubizarreta still available?
Remember the days when balding footballers wouldn’t shave their heads?
As an unlockable Pokemon? Yes. As a goalkeeper looking to revive his career by turning into a midfielder at the tender age of 61? Probably not.
Zidane’s negative skullcap from WC 98 is still a legendary fashion statement
High bid for a player that’s not for sale & that Ch$lski have bid for….smokescreen?
Josh Kroenke is in danger of getting a song soon!
He spends when he wants, he spends when he waaants. Josh Kroenke, he spends when he wants.
Signing for billionaires…good god?!
Altered carbon really is coming true.
Yeah, the fact that Chelsea supporters do it is another reason to hate them. And, whatever I think of billionaires like Kronke (not highly), it is a seriously even worse thing to sing for a Russian oligarch. The truth is, if it were not for our long history and tradition, I would hate them more than Spurs.
I hate them equally as much as Sp*rs – both narrowly more than manure.
But, I also hate the Kroenkes. They’re fkers! Ethically and morally bankrupt with god complexes like the rest of the billionaires in this world. Don’t forget who drove us into the superleague BS. Billionaires have broken the football (and plenty more) that we love.
Dosh Kroenke.
This story just shows how TIMING in football is EVERYTHING. Towards the end of the last transfer window, we made bids for first of all Danilo (formerly of Palmeiras) & then Luiz (of Villa). Neither of the bids were successful as their respective clubs either didn’t want to sell at the time, or simply priced us out of the market (raise your right hand Villa). We apparently continued monitoring Danilo for months afterwards, but didn’t make a fresh move for him during this transfer window. He was then sold to Forest a few weeks back for around £18M to £20M.… Read more »
Reminds me of the show Storage Wars (or something) where people would bid for abandoned storage lockers. Some people just kept upping their bid to force their opponents to buy units at higher price to squeeze the profits their rivals would make.
After Mudryk saga, this looks like Arsenal are trying to get Chelsea to bid higher. Maybe Trossard’s contract had a clause that reduces add-ons if other Brighton transfers go over a certain limit 😉
Or a clause that reduces the add-ons we pay on the Trossard deal if we bid on players we don’t want just so Chelsea continue to pay over the odds…
There’s a joke somewhere in here about bidding on a storage locker that is where Sp*rs keep their trophy cabinet, only to find you just bought an empty locker…
I say we go again with £61m. Mr. Bloom should know this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to say his club fuelled the 50-year domination of Arsenal Football Club with a defender, a midfielder and a forward like we did Man City.
I say we offer £60m +£1
£60m + Lokonga.
You might be on to something there
I was going to say that. It could be a win-win if we loaned him out for rest of season and cover his wages. They have a player to replace Caicedo, and Sambi gets experience. Maybe we even offer an option to buy…
Why would they want Lokonga? He’s not in a very good place right now.
Its a body at least for them.
Because the window closes in two days and they won’t have enough time to source a replacement for Caicedo.
This is actually solid.
He’s a good progressive passer and shouldn’t struggle too much to work in Brighton’s system.
Could this be a bit of Arsenal sh*thousery towards a Chelsea target, I like it
Blogs talked on the other day about midfielders maybe being reluctant to join given our interest in Rice in the summer but I think we might well be targeting two midfielders. Sambi is a goner, I think, and El-Neny is injured a lot (plus he isn’t really pushing for a starting place). If we did get Caicedo AND Rice (sounds like FM with a cheat code, I know) then we’d have 4 top class midfielders with competition for places and we’d have a nice age distribution with Xhaka and Partey hitting 30.
I don’t know the inner workings of these transfers, but surely they could be sorted out with a phonecall. Make an offer, haggle a bit, and agree a price, or not. Perhaps I am Naive.
If it were me I’d table a big a budget that Arteta and Edu are comfortable with for Rice, Caicedo, Onana, and Zubimendi and see who takes the offer.
Be interesting to see what happens betwen now and Tuesday.
Im sure edu has a good idea of what it will take to get a bid accepted. From what we know Arsenal have a good relationship dealing with Brighton so its fair to assume they talk plenty. Maybe Brighton really dont want to sell him yet and we’re testing their resolve. Maybe it’s a smokescreen to lure in the american idiot from chelsea or maybe its just a bullshit rumour (Fabrizio is no Ornstein). We are for sure looking for a couple of midfielders with Granit and Partey’s ages and unique skillsets in mind. I’m confident we’ll sign one this… Read more »
Agree. Unless Sambi needs to take a leap. Would have been great if he can find some form. regarding this transfer, someone leaked it. I doubt it was arsenal. So most likely his agents or brighton if they dont want this to happen. I reckon if the selling club are willing, the player is willing and the selling club believes they can get a good fee, this would probabably NOT have been in the media.
Wheel out Todd the gimp
Sure sounds easier than all the hanky panky the journalists put out there every hour.
Arsenal ain’t playing. Wasn’t expecting this bid tbh, but very excited. COYG!
Brighton will reject £100m from chelsea but will accept £50m from Arsenal because they can. Lol.
In serious note i believe Brighton is a proper football club that would like to see players progress. Just look at Ben White and Cucurella.
we need a midfielder but I’m not sure Caicedo is what we need: he;s quick to go to ground for a tackle (remind of someone?), he’s rather weak , not an enforcer like Vieira, he’s not fast as Kante, not as technical as Partey is…too much money for not enough end product.
I’d rather get a “killer” like Onana, I know he’s lacking creativity but at least he’s a better “destroyer”.
Caicedo seems not good enough to me, I’d rather use that money elsewhere
Well, at least we went in with a decent first bid this time.
That said, he’s not worth anything higher than £70m ; perhaps we could go back in at £60m plus Sambi or AMN. Neither of them are at the next level this team is now at.
I’ve heard Nelson’s name banded about, but he’s too valuable as direct back up for Saka at the moment.
It’ll be an interesting one as the clock winds down. Caicedo is a good player, no question.
Chelsea and Tod The Cunt can fuck right off.
I gave your comment a thumbs up purely because of your last sentence . Actually spat my tea…
Can’t see this happening. They will try to keep him or Chelsea will trow 20 more million than us.
That’s a massive bid and we shouldn’t go any higher. If Brighton don’t accept then we should move on. There are other players out there if we look for them.
It’s nice to see the club showing real ambition in the transfer market.
Can‘t see us bringing him in now and then Rice in the summer without selling at least one of Xhaka or Partey until then. Really curious how our central midfiled will look by the start of next season.
I don’t see the need for signing Rice. he is strong and can run, but does he dictate a midfield? think Cazorla, fab, arteta, etc. you dont need muscle to make a good midfield
energy and stamina are hugely important characteristics for any midfielders we sign, but versatility to play in a 6 or 8 role is something i would consider as important for high dollar players we’re looking to add to the squad. rice can play both roles, and at only 24, he has huge potential to improve (with the right mentorship and application of course). rice could be a very useful member of the squad as he could deputize for (or replace) either partey or xhaka in the current setup. the major stumbling block in the summer will be a huge salary… Read more »
I imagine the plan is to offload Nelson, Holding, Cedric, Elneny and pop Sambi and Marquinhos on loan at the end of the season. We’ll be in the CL so will need more/higher comp for places. I guess they want to bring in Caicedo, Rice, Fresnada and another attacker to compete with Saka. Balagun is probably ready to come back and compete for the striker berth with Jesus and Eddie.
Not Nelson please – the kid’s due. Hale End forever.
Sambi is on his way out I think.
Big fan of squad depth but not sure if Partey, Xhaka, Rice and Caicedo is managable in terms of game time. Surely there are more important games next season than this but all of them (maybe slightly less Caicedo) will expect a lot of game time. If Mik manages to keep them all happy, it would be pretty sensational. For one season it could work though. And selling Xhaka next summer could be realistic as well, so who knows.
While your concerns are valid, this is exactly how man city built such a dominant team. For far too long, Arsenal have been afraid to take that one extra step and buy players who could compete for spots simply because we thought it would block the route of a youngster in the team. But I think good managers always find a way to keep all their players happy, and Arteta seems to excel at it. If we buy only one of Caicedo and Rice/player of similar profile, we’re going to be repeating out past mistakes. If Xhaka/Partey gets injured, we’ll… Read more »
Sign Koopmeiners from Atalanta!
I want to keep this on topic and say that Chelsea are cunts!
Todd boehly is possibly the second most annoying human on the planet.
second to whom?
Elon musk
Thought you were going to say Piers Morgan
I’m sure Piers has got the 3rd position locked down
as i don’t live in the UK, piers isn’t nearly as annoying here- so 3rd spot is a tie between benny shapino and rogan
Since we are up in crazy money land, why not test West Ham for Rice with a big offer now? No doubt someone has already thought of this upstairs…
I’d use a different word for the thing Ted Boelhy loves to stick in
This is ridiculous. Football has a silly view on money.
He’s played a few games in the Ecuadorian League, a few on loan in the Belgian League and less than 30 in the Premier League. They spent €5 million on him, I understand they don’t want to let him go but in the less stupidly inflated market he would be around €20 million which is still A LOT OF MONEY
White, Trossard and now Caicedo, Brighton is fast becoming a good client for Arsenal, thank God we didn’t get Cucurella and Potter from them
I’m pretty sure it’s our intention to purposefully drove up the price given that Chelsea is in the picture. We will then challenge them to pay over the odds again. And then come summer, we will get Rice all to ourselves
BBC just announced that Brighton have rejected the 60mil pound bid.
re the money involved, Arsenal paid 50 mil pounds for Partey…
I would hate to be a supporter of a side like Brighton that constantly has its best players picked off by the bigger clubs.
You haven’t been supporting Arsenal for long then. That used to be our lot not too long ago.
They should give us a loyalty stamp card. Buy ten Brighton players get your eleventh for free.
Are Brighton our feeder club now? fully expect us to be in for Mitoma in the summer….Arteta seems to be thinking Rice/ Caicedo to gradually take over from Xhaxa/Partey…..Throw Sambi onto the deal and get this done.
Zinchenko central midfield and let him run the show if Party is unavailable.
Yeah, I’m sorry, but I don’t see why Brighton would do this.
They lose a key player without a replacement when they’re doing very well and can likely sell him for at least as much in the summer?
I wouldn’t, not unless somebody paid over the odds.
This is just a plot as usual to say they tried to sign a player, they are realistic midfielder options:
Onana
Savic. M
W, cavalho(till the end of season)
J, ward-prowse(mid option)
Brosovic(inter)
Ndidi
???? Please 🙏 EDU don’t waste our chance of a league title after a long time 😩😩
Brighton have no reason to sell? Not so sure about that. Brighton’s great skill has been accepting their position in the food chain and using their relative small size to attract top young players, then selling them on for large profits to bigger clubs. That’s a reputation that attracts the Caicedo’s of this world to sign for them in the first place and if all of a sudden they decide to make it difficult for players to get their move what’s the incentive to join? Part of the deal that Brighton as a club have to accept is that in… Read more »