by Chelsea had planned to parade their British record signing Moises Caicedo in the opening game of the season against Liverpool, but Wednesday night will be the midfielder’s first chance to show the Anfield club what they are all about missing them.
The deal could not be fully completed in time for Chelsea to rub Liverpool’s noses in it at Stamford Bridge in August after Jurgen Klopp failed in a late bid to take Caicedo’s move, but the London club still took the £115m final chance to clean. million deal.
Unveiling Caicedo as their player barely 24 hours after the opening day draw with Liverpool, Chelsea recreated an old picture of him with his mother, posing in a Chelsea shirt, with the caption “It was just Chelsea”.
Although Liverpool go into Wednesday night’s game on top of the Premier League table, Caicedo’s decision to move to Anfield has clearly fallen short in favor of Chelsea.
Liverpool also lost Romeo Lavia to Chelsea and, speaking at the Anfield Road test event, Klopp let his guard down saying: “The summer we had, a few strange things happened in the transfer market but here, between us, I can say ‘My god, were we lucky, eh?”
The crowd laughed at Klopp’s joke but, although Lavia has only made one appearance due to injuries, Caicedo has encouraged Chelsea coach Mauricio Pochettino to turn those smiles around and prove himself as one of the best midfielders in the world. .
“Yes, I think so,” said Pochettino. “Chelsea and Liverpool offered the same kind of money, so not only Chelsea but Liverpool believe he will be one of the best midfielders in the future.
“After that, it’s all about adaptation. He didn’t make pre-season, he had some problems while traveling on international duty. Many things slowed down the adaptation to the team and the club.
“But there’s no doubt he has the profile to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. He was already showing in Brighton that he could do that.
Chelsea’s initial offer for Caicedo was £60m and in the end the club had to pay almost twice that, that is to say Liverpool, who made a surprise offer of £111m, as reported exclusively by Telegraph Sport at the time.
Klopp was hopeful that the offer and Brighton’s choice to sell to Liverpool would be enough to secure his signature and the German is believed to have said as much in a message sent to the player expressing their hope that great to see medical.
But Liverpool did not bargain for all the ground work that had been done by Chelsea, led by joint owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, into the weeks and months before that had already been made up of minds Caicedo – along with his youth support. of the club.
Caicedo was Chelsea’s first-choice from the first day of the summer transfer window and the club’s lone attempt to steal him from Liverpool, at the end of a summer in which they initially prioritized Alexis McAllister and Dominik Szoboszlai, was irrelevant – not it was just. going to Stamford Bridge.
Asked if he was surprised to hear Caicedo turned down Liverpool in favor of a move to Chelsea, Pochettino replied: “I was not involved in the negotiations. I think the connection from the past, I believe Paul (Winstanley) was involved when he signed for Brighton. Maybe Moises wanted to sign for Chelsea, not only because of the club but also because of the people who were involved with him before, in the negotiations when he arrived in the Premier League with Brighton.”
The fact that Caicedo signed for the club, rather than Pochettino specifically, has become more significant following Klopp’s announcement that he will step down as Liverpool manager at the end of the season and the club’s need to replace sporting director Jorge Schmadtke , who will leave his. post this week.
Liverpool naysayers who laughed at Klopp’s joke at Anfield on Wednesday night may not wish Caicedo had made a different choice, given the state of the two clubs, but they will if the 22-year-old makes the kind of move to ones that Pochettino believes. able
“Sometimes what you pay is because they are going to come and the day after they are going to perform,” Pochettino said. “But now you’re trying to sign a good player who could be one of the best in their position.
“Remember when [Zinedine] Zidane or Kaka went to Real Madrid – they paid a lot of money. Zidane was 26 or 27 [he was 29]. I think it took seven or eight months for him to perform because there is a lot of expectation and it is difficult to adapt. The pressure is enormous.”
Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson flew back from the Ivory Coast, where he competed in the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, to Manchester on Tuesday night in time to be part of Pochettino’s squad for the trip to Liverpool.
Jackson is due to meet the rest of the squad on Wednesday morning in the hope of being among Chelsea’s representatives at Anfield.
Pochettino joked that he would be prepared for Jackson to parachute into Anfield if he was meant to be available, saying: “If it means we have one per cent more chance of winning the game then we will definitely try! But I don’t know if he is brave enough to jump.
“We are waiting. All I can say is that maybe he will be there. The other day Ghana lost and they were out and Inaki Williams came a few hours before and played in the second half for Barcelona beaten in the Copa del Rey. Why can’t Jackson come and score the winning goal?”
