‘That was the comedy’ – Caicedo’s agent makes startling claim about failed Liverpool pursuit
Moises Caicedo’s agent has shared an astounding insight into one particular chain of events involving Liverpool’s futile pursuit of the player during the summer transfer window.The Reds were hotly linked with the Ecuador midfielder and had even agreed a £111m fee to sign him on the eve of the 2023/24 season (BBC Sport), only for […]
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Moises Caicedo’s agent has shared an astounding insight into one particular chain of events involving Liverpool’s futile pursuit of the player during the summer transfer window.
The Reds were hotly linked with the Ecuador midfielder and had even agreed a £111m fee to sign him on the eve of the 2023/24 season (BBC Sport), only for the 21-year-old to opt for a £115m move to Chelsea instead (The Telegraph).
His agent Manuel Sierra has now given an extraordinary interview to Futbol sin Cassette in which he told of how he and the player were instructed by his former club Brighton to go to Merseyside for a medical, even though no agreement has been struck at that point.
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Caicedo’s representative outlined: “Liverpool was always interested in Moi. The truth is, we had meetings during those months from January to May. But after May, we never heard anything more.
“The first thing we were told is ‘Tomorrow, you have to go to Liverpool for a medical’. Of course, what’s our reaction going to be if we haven’t negotiated, haven’t talked, haven’t seen anything at all?
“We knew where things could happen because we were talking with them until May. In the end, our side and the player’s side were not a problem, but the problem was Brighton.
“When they told us ‘You can go to Liverpool tomorrow’, our reaction was ‘Okay, but do you understand why?’ That was the comedy. In other words, they told us to go for a medical examination with Liverpool without having an agreement, without giving the green light.
“Even [Jurgen] Klopp wrote to Moises with Brighton’s permission and all, but Moises was clear all along, and we were clear all along that if Chelsea matched or offered the same conditions that Liverpool could with Brighton, as I said, they surpassed it. So there were no complaints.”
The transfer saga surrounding Caicedo was one of the most dramatic of the summer. Think back to that Friday when the Premier League started, when Liverpool thought they had him, only for the 21-year-old to opt for Chelsea instead after they came in with a slightly higher offer.
It felt like a hammer blow for the Reds at the time, as we were still trying to bring in a specialist holding midfielder following Fabinho’s exit to Saudi Arabia, but the subsequent signings of Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch helped to fill that void.
The Ecuadorian hasn’t had the most ideal beginning to life at Stamford Bridge, conceding a penalty in his first game (a 3-1 loss to West Ham) and being involved in two home defeats amid the Blues’ slow start to the campaign.
For just over half the price that Chelsea paid for Caicedo, Liverpool snared Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig, and the 22-year-old has been a revelation at Anfield, wowing the Kop with wonder goals against Aston Villa and Leicester and evoking comparisons to Steven Gerrard with his performances.
While it might sound hugely revisionist, we’d safely assume that Klopp isn’t losing too much sleep over the Ecuador international snubbing the Reds when they’d already landed the Hungarian genius.
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The post ‘That was the comedy’ – Caicedo’s agent makes startling claim about failed Liverpool pursuit appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.