Chelsea could have signed Moises Caicedo for a bargain sum back in 2020 when he was just 18 years of age.
That is according to The Secret Scout.
Now, Mauricio Pochettino wants Moises Caicedo at Chelsea – although the Blues face paying a record amount.
What’s the story?
Well, it was Simon Phillips who claimed on Substack that the Argentine really wants Chelsea to wrap up a deal for the Ecuador international in the coming weeks.
The Telegraph believe Brighton are hoping to receive over £100m for Caicedo, which would be a club-record sale for the Seagulls, and potentially a club-record signing for Chelsea if the fee exceeds the £106.8m spent on Enzo Fernandez.
Now – however – it has been revealed that Chelsea ignored the chance to sign the South American for peanuts when he was just 18.
The Secret Scout claim on Twitter that Caicedo was mentioned to the Blues as a suggestion to join the academy at Cobham, although Chelsea never acted on that advice.
Eventually, it was Brighton who signed the Ecuadorian from Independiente del Valle in a £4.5m deal when he was 19.
The Seagulls are set to be rewarded for their faith in Caicedo with a huge profit on their initial investment, if a deal between Chelsea and Brighton can be agreed this summer.
Chelsea have hopefully avoided another Caicedo situation
While this update will surely annoy some Chelsea fans, those at Stamford Bridge are working hard to ensure a repeat never happens.
Chelsea have hoovered up some of the best young talent on the planet since missing out on Caicedo, with Todd Boehly spending heavily to secure the signatures of gems such as Kendry Paez, Cesare Casadei, Andrey Santos, Carney Chukwuemeka and Mykhailo Mudryk.
It will take some time for these diamonds to develop their potential, but the expectation is that they will go on to reach the level of Premier League stars like Caicedo soon.
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