Celtic had the opportunity to sign Moises Caicedo for just £1m in the summer of 2020. Then Caicedo was playing for Independiente del Valle before impressing, resulting in the £4.5m switch to Brighton that subsequently led to his Chelsea.
Mauricio Pochettino signed Caicedo for £115m, a British transfer record, earlier this week. However, Stephen McGowan at the Daily Mail has revealed that Celtic were sent a report identifying Caicedo by a scout in the summer of 2020. The scout believed that the club would be able to sign the player for around £1m. However, by the time Celtic sought to look into the player further, he had gained a reputation of his own and was on the radar of a number of clubs.
Caicedo, who is just 21, benefitted from the coaching of Graham Potter and then Roberto De Zebri at Brighton but will now seek to replicate his initial success with Chelsea.
Maybe Celtic thought that they were covered in the form of Ismaila Soro, who had barely made the bench by this point, in the defensive midfield role.
It is a case of what might’ve been. Often players are offered in a number of forms, some going onto impress and others proving themselves to have been near misses. Celtic have had some excellent signings in recent times that have been somewhat under the radar and proven to be great successes. Virgil Van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and Jeremie Frimpong spring to mind when thinking about the club’s transfer successes in recent times. The club will hope that the plundering of both the Japanese and South Korean markets will have a similar success.
One thing is for certain and that is that if Caicedo had gone to Celtic, there is no way that the Scottish Champions would’ve received a fee anywhere near (or within £50m) to what Chelsea paid.