Chelsea and Arsenal could return to Brighton with more significant offers for Moises Caicedo, Ben Jacobs has claimed.
What’s the word?
Arsenal have had a £60m bid rejected for the midfielder, following Chelsea’s bid earlier this week, and Brighton are adamant that they will not sell the 21-year-old in this window.
However, a higher offer could tempt Brighton into negotiations, and overall it could take a significant financial package to change their minds about a deal.
What deal should Arsenal complete?
£100m for Caicedo
£52m for Zubimendi
Speaking on Chelsea Fan TV, Jacobs claimed he expects the next bid, which could come from either Chelsea or Arsenal, to be high enough to convince Brighton to even entertain negotiations.
“What Chelsea and Arsenal would be wary of is if they’re both going to come back in, it’s only going to inflate the price further and further and further,” he stated.
“I actually expect the next step to be quite a bullish offer. I expect that one of the two clubs will strongly consider getting somewhere close to the £70m mark and then seeing whether that creates meaningful engagement because right now there’s not really any meaningful engagement.
“Brighton are not countering, Brighton are not saying no, but, if you do this, Brighton are offering this valuation even though sources continue to say, and have done for months, that it’s £75 million or more, and Brighton are simply saying no.”
Bidding war?
The final few days of the window could see yet another battle between Chelsea and Arsenal, following the dramatic saga over Mykhailo Mudryk earlier in the window.
Brighton find themselves in a strong position given the interest in him, and can either keep their player until the end of the season or make another huge profit within two years of the player’s arrival.
It remains to be seen how they will react to further bids but their stance right now is clear, that the bids need to be raised to even consider a sale.
But, one thing that is kind of forcing their hand is the fact that he won’t play in their next game and missed training recently.
