Chelsea ready to raise Moisés Caicedo offer after Liverpool agree £110m deal

Chelsea are prepared to raise their offer for Moisés Caicedo in an attempt to beat Liverpool to the signing of the Brighton midfielder.

Liverpool have had a £110m offer accepted by Brighton and are hoping to guard against a late hijack by concluding the deal swiftly. However it is understood Chelsea have not given up their pursuit of Caicedo, their top summer target, and are ready to bid more than £110m to land the Ecuador international.

Chelsea have been frontunners for Caicedo and submitted an offer worth up to £100m on Thursday night. However they were stunned by Liverpool muscling in on the deal for the 21-year-old earlier in the day. Liverpool are aiming to discuss personal terms with Caicedo and to complete the transfer on Friday after their higher bid was accepted by Brighton, but the saga is not over.

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The situation remains unpredictable. Brighton had set a deadline on Thursday night for bids and said they would take the highest one. It is unclear whether Chelsea have left it too late.

Caicedo was in London on Thursday, as was one of his representatives, and was said to favour a move to Stamford Bridge. There has long been an expectation that Chelsea, who have been in talks with Brighton all summer, would get the deal done.

“I can confirm the deal with [Brighton] is agreed, whatever that means because we want the player and not any kind of agreement – we will see,” Liverpool’s manager, Jürgen Klopp, said. “We are club that doesn’t have endless resources, we didn’t expect a couple of things happening in the summer, like [Jordan] Henderson and Fabinho [leaving], stuff like this.

“We didn’t think about that before the summer, to be honest, and then it happened. We gave [attempting to sign Jude Bellingham] a go and the club was really stretched. We will see [what happens with Caicedo].”

Klopp previously said he would not pay £100m for a player. “Everything changes,” he said on Friday. “Do I like it? No But did I realise I was wrong? Definitely. It is not great but it is the way it goes. It will not change around again. Saudi Arabia will not help. We as a club have to try and make sure with our resources we get the best possible team together … If people want to throw my quotes from five or six years ago, absolutely no problem.”

Chelsea need to strengthen in midfield after losing Mason Mount, N’Golo Kanté, Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic this year. A £20m move for Leeds’s Tyler Adams collapsed on Friday and they have failed with a £48m bid for Southampton’s Roméo Lavia, who was also a Liverpool target. Chelsea missed out to Paris Saint-Germain in the race to sign Manuel Ugarte from Sporting.

Liverpool are also strengthening in midfield, having lost Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho. They have signed Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton and Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig. Chelsea host Klopp’s side on Sunday.

Brighton’s manager, Roberto de Zerbi, said he had “already forgotten Moisés” as he prepared for Saturday’s game against Luton. Pochettino gave little away on Caicedo but revealed Chelsea were looking for attacking reinforcements after Christopher Nkunku underwent surgery on a knee injury this week. Nkunku is expected to be out for 16 weeks.

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“We are going to miss one player like this. The club is working, trying to find a solution, maybe short term, medium and long term to add the right profile for the team to perform for now.”

Fulham are hopeful of clinching a deal to sign Callum Hudson-Odoi after making a new bid for the Chelsea winger. Hudson-Odoi has been waiting for permission to leave his boyhood club and wants to join Fulham, who have had one offer turned down.

The 22-year-old was not involved in Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the USA and has not been training with the first team. It is understood Chelsea have been looking for about £8m for Hudson-Odoi, who has a year on his deal. The size of Fulham’s bid is unknown and there has been no confirmation on whether it has been accepted.

Two other clubs are interested in Hudson-Odoi but Fulham are favourites. Hudson-Odoi was targeted by Bayern Munich in 2019 and 2020. His development stalled after a serious achilles injury in 2019 and he spent last season on loan at Bayer Leverkusen.