Chelsea are spending £115m on a 'development player', says Sutton

Chelsea are spending £115m on a ‘development player’ in signing Moises Caicedo, says Chris Sutton, as he tells British record buy he would have been better off at Liverpool on Mail Sport’s new podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off’

• Click here to listen to Mail Sport’s brand new show ‘It’s All Kicking Off’ in full 
• Moises Caicedo is on the brink of moving to Chelsea for huge £115million fee
• He turned down Liverpool and Chris Sutton thinks Reds were better choice 

Moises Caicedo should have joined Liverpool over Chelsea and the Blues are spending a record British fee on a ‘development player’, says Chris Sutton. 

Speaking on Mail Sport’s brand new podcast, It’s All Kicking Off, Sutton and Ian Ladyman reflected on the enormous £115million move from Brighton to west London, which is due to be announced in the coming days. 

Caicedo had been a target for months but it seemed as though Liverpool were going to hijack the deal with a £111m offer. The transfer saga took another twist when the Ecuadorian rejected the Reds, allowing Todd Boehly to return with a higher offer to secure his man. 

Ladyman was staggered by the exorbitant fee and suggested Roy Keane would be ‘double in today’s market’.

Against the backdrop of the transfer saga and Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, Sutton and Ladyman spoke about the hot topic.  

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Ian Ladyman (left) and Chris Sutton (right) spoke about Moises Caicedo’s impending £115million move to Chelsea, after the Brighton midfielder rejected Liverpool 

The Brighton star could have a transformative effect on the Blues this season

Ian Ladyman: Chris, we have a new British transfer record in the offing. Chelsea have agreed to pay Brighton £115million for their central midfielder, Moises Caicedo. Is he worth that amount of money? £115m for a defensive midfielder. The football has gone crazy, hasn’t it, really?

Chris Sutton: That’s a lot of money for a player in that position. I suppose time will tell in terms of if in the next few seasons Chelsea win the Champions League in the Premier League, then you say he is worth the money, but I’m not so sure he is. 

Ian Ladyman: Why has he chosen Chelsea over Liverpool, do you think? 

Chris Sutton: I don’t know, I don’t get it. It must be because of the manager, Pochettino. I actually think that Liverpool, you know, you look at where they are at this moment in time, you compare them to Chelsea and their performances last season. 

I think Liverpool are closer to winning the title than Chelsea are. But Chelsea obviously think this will be a transformative signing for them, I suppose, the deep squad and Pochettino obviously thinks this is the type of transfer that will take them above Liverpool. 

If you can sort of understand the Chelsea transfer recruitment policy since Todd Boehly has been in then you’re a better man than me but Pochettino has come in and he’s trying to make his mark and bring players in who he actually wants. Caicedo, he thinks will take Chelsea to the next level. The transformation of Chelsea squad from last season to this has been absolutely extraordinary. 

Mauricio Pochettino (right) and Jurgen Klopp both wanted Moises Caicedo but he is heading to Chelsea in a huge £115million deal this summer

Mail Sport’s podcast It’s All Kicking Off reflected on all the weekend’s action

Ian Ladyman: But now he goes to Chelsea for this sort of money, he has to become a great footballer. You mentioned Roy Keane in passing, can we even begin to think about how much a play like Keane would have been worth in today’s market? Say when he went from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United. If Caicedo at 21 is going for £115m, what are we talking Roy Keane value? He’d be double that, wouldn’t he? 

Chris Sutton: You’d certainly say he’d be double that, because you’re scared of him! He was still a very young player when he went to Manchester United. He was more of the finished article than Caicedo is. 

It is £115m essentially for a development player. Caicedo will worry less about what’s written on the back pages of the newspapers, I would imagine, but for him it’ll be social media and things like that, that if he looks, that’s where he will find the questions, isn’t it? That’s where he will find the criticism.

Ian Ladyman: I was at the game at Stamford Bridge against Liverpool and looked down the team sheet in the squad list and you are seeing names that you recognise because you follow it but you don’t know that much about them. If you’re a Chelsea fan, it must be absolutely bamboozling. 

Now, this transfer of Caicedo to Chelsea blows an absolute, puts an absolute bomb onto Liverpool’s season, does it not? They wanted him, he would have played for them every week. That is what they need in the absence of Fabinho and Henderson. They are starting to look… a little bit like yesterday’s men in the transfer market, are they not? 

Chris Sutton: Do you think… Do you know what, I don’t actually agree with that. The fact that they haven’t got Caicedo over the line, I can understand what you’re saying with that, but they did get Mac Allister over the line. Szoboszlai on the face of it seems a good signing, saw a little bit of him at Leipzig, a prominent player for Hungary. 

It’s just a choice thing from Caicedo. What we do know is Liverpool have an issue in that defensive midfield position, and it’s something I’m sure that Klopp will address. That issue looked pretty large at Stamford Bridge, I have to say.  Chelsea got onto Liverpool’s back four far too often and that weakness in Liverpool still exists. 

Caicedo would have been better off joining Liverpool, according to Sutton (right)

The Ecuadorian midfielder will become the record transfer in Britain with his move

Ian Ladyman: Yes, and I’m certainly not going to argue with that, but you know, in terms of the way managers deal with this situation, Caicedo would have been top of the pile for Klopp and then he’ll be going down that list and, you know, the fact of the matter is they will fill that gap, but not with the priority. They wanted Bellingham. They walked away from that one. They wanted Caicedo. They haven’t got that one. 

Chris Sutton: But that happens all the time, doesn’t it? 

Ian Ladyman: I would be worried if I was Jurgen Klopp. Now, Caicedo himself, he’s a fascinating character, 21 years old. He was 19 when Brighton bought him two years ago for four million pounds. That’s an extraordinary piece of work from Brighton.    

Chris Sutton: I suppose the sort of confusion about Caicedo going to Chelsea over Liverpool is because the way Chelsea or the season they had last season and many would view Liverpool as a better option for Liverpool to have a better season. I understand that in terms of my thought process, Blackburn were the team pushing Manchester United at the top of the table back in 1993, 1994 team on the up that’s why I went to Blackburn and we won the Premier League the next season you make your own mind whether it was because of me we won the Premier League. 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show every week this season.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify

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