Chelsea and Brighton and Hove Albion seemed to have been in constant dialogue over this summer regarding one transfer or another.
For example, on Saturday it was announced that the Blues had signed Brighton goalkeeper, Robert Sanchez, on a seven-year deal, and negotiations still appear to be ongoing for Moises Caicedo.
The Ecuadorian is believed to want to make the move to Stamford Bridge and the west Londoners have made two offers already so are clearly interested, however, there remains an impasse on that particular deal at present.
The Seagulls arguably had a better season than Chelsea in 2022/23, so it begs the question as to why Caicedo would appear so desperate to leave, unless money is his motivation.
In any event, as The Athletic (subscription required) report, it looks as if Brighton have got one over Chelsea in the transfer market, after Ajax reached an agreement in principle for their star, Mohammed Kudus, with the south coast club.
It’s also reported that the player, who Chelsea enquired about last month say The Athletic, is close to agreeing personal terms.
Under Roberto De Zerbi, the club are going from strength to strength, which may not have been considered when Chelsea prised former Brighton manager, Graham Potter, from the AMEX Stadium.
Since then, De Zerbi’s star has shone brightest, whilst Potter has taken a sabbatical it seems.
Nothing to suggest that Brighton are now an established top six team. In fact last season was something exceptional from which they benefited – World Cup, and failure of two big teams in LFC and CFC.
Holding on to Caicedo is also not something to crow about. He wants to leave. If he doesn’t, is his motivation going to be what it was before? Unlikely. Resentment will lurk when things get tough.
While Chelsea are right not to pay 100m for Caicedo ( he is not a World Cup winner like Enzo) they are clearly obsessed by the Brighton project from whence came one of their sporting directors.
That BHA clearly have moved on since Winstanley left should be cause for circumspection at Chelsea. He, Potter and Cucurella have all proved inadequate.
While Brighton currently enjoy a certain smugness an inflated self opinion is never a good omen.
Rightly said. I wish Chelsea could bolster the squad by looking somewhere else. The back and forth is too much and he isn’t worth £100m player. Declan Rice proved himself for over 3 seasons, Velerde has proven himself what if he doesn’t hit that heights anymore. This is FOOTBALL. Leicester was it their peak after winning a league title but the braggado wasn’t even this much. They sold Ngolo Kante to Chelsea for just £32m, he was worth almost as much as Pogba was worth but they considered how much he was bought from Ligue 1. Brighton would likely go down in the next 2seasons. Mark my words.
I don’t think they’ll go down but I caught some of their game against Rayo yesterday and whilst they pressed hard, they got a lucky penalty. The Spanish team looked very comfortable containing them.
That is a team they should have easily disposed of if they have genuine ambitions – and the press were predicting a 2-0 victory also.
Early days but I don’t think they’ll be in the top 8 places come Christmas especially as they have Euro games.