Chelsea will look to strengthen their midfield by pursuing a deal for number one target Moises Caicedo after accepting a bid for Mason Mount from Manchester United, according to the Evening Standard’s football correspondent Nizaar Kinsella.
Kinsella joined the Hayters TV Podcast to discuss Mason Mount’s expected departure to Man Utd and Chelsea’s plans now they have banked several significant transfer fees, following the exits of Mateo Kovacic, Kai Havertz, Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy.
Chelsea have been under pressure to sell players after a transfer outlay of more than £600m across the last two transfer windows and Kinsella says Mount’s £55m move to United will allow the club to start addressing the shortage of midfielders in the squad.
“They’ve got a midfield situation to sort out now,” Kinsella said.
“They’ve sold so many midfielders. We mentioned Havertz, we mentioned Kovacic, we mentioned Mount. But also N’Golo Kante has left for free so there’s a lot of midfielders going out.
“Moises Caicedo is the main target and he has been for a while. I think that should happen, I think it’s going to be a substantial fee.
“The fee is the hardest thing, the player wants to go to Chelsea. Brighton will let him go for a large fee but I think the fee will be the issue, it’s just a case of how much now at this stage so that’s something to thrash out.
“But looking at Chelsea’s bank account, especially after the Mount deal, it shouldn’t be a problem really.
“Chelsea just spent £600m across the last two transfer windows which is a world record, so now they’ve brought in about £200m which helps balance the books so I think they can feel a bit more confident going into the market for who will be their most expensive outlay.
“I think we’ll start to see Chelsea being aggressive probably from next week, and coincidentally Pochettino will be in the building which is very exciting.”
Caicedo has also attracted interest from other clubs including Arsenal, who tried to sign the midfielder in January for a reported £75m.
And Kinsella believes Chelsea will have to spend even more if they want to seal a deal for Caicedo this summer, especially given Declan Rice’s expected £105m move from West Ham to Arsenal.
“I think it may be slightly more than that figure (£75m) but I don’t think much more,” he explained.
“There’s been talk of £100m, I don’t think it will be £100m. But they will try and benchmark against Rice’s fee.
“You always look at who else has moved in the market and Brighton might argue that Caicedo is just as good as Rice, and I think some people do even think he might be better so they could try and benchmark against that.
“But there is a soft agreement apparently between Roberto de Zerbi and Caicedo that he can leave if a certain type of bid comes in.”
