Just when Liverpool thought things couldn’t get any worse, it appears that Chelsea are going to gazump them on the Romeo Lavia deal as well as Moises Caicedo.
For the latter, it seems that the Reds can’t really do too much about it. After having a British record bid submitted by Brighton and Hove Albion, the player apparently professed a personal preference of only wishing to sign for the Blues.
EXCLUSIVE: Moisés Caicedo has just informed Liverpool that he only wants to join Chelsea! ???? #CFC
Caicedo has decided to keep his word and only accept Chelsea as personal terms were agreed since end of May.
Chelsea, set to bid again in order to get deal done with Brighton. pic.twitter.com/HI3geVVq9Z
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 11, 2023
Whilst that may have left Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool’s owners seething, it’s absolutely Caicedo’s prerogative to move to whichever club he chooses.
At the time of writing, Chelsea haven’t actually equalled Liverpool’s bid, but that is considered to be a formality.
With the Reds’ opening fixture of the Premier League weekend ironically against Chelsea, one can only imagine what the atmosphere will be like at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
If that wasn’t bad enough for Liverpool supporters, RMC Sport journalist, Sacha Tavolieri, tweeted late on Friday that Chelsea had agreed a bid with another Jurgen Klopp target, Southampton’s Romeo Lavia.
?? ? Been told #ChelseaFC got an agreement on 50M£ with #SouthamptonFC on Romeo Lavia.
The Blues finally reached the values of the #SaintsFC & wants to bypass #LiverpoolFC on their priority target as they did on Caicedo. The Belgian midfielder has already told some of his… pic.twitter.com/ZFMAPbzzaI— Sacha Tavolieri (@sachatavolieri) August 11, 2023
For the Anfield outfit to not get either player has to go down as a huge failure on the part of their recruitment department.
It also means that they’ve still not plugged the midfield gaps that have been left by the sales of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho et al.
Whether that will translate into some poor early season performances will soon be known.
f these reports are true, then FSG are just playing with transfers, with no real desire to buy. Lavia was simple, pay £50m and get him, or walk away. To approach Brighton with a British record is plain daft, he already said he wanted Chelsea.
For that money we could have nearly bought teh 3 players we need.