Steve McManaman believes Liverpool will not pay the £100m transfer fee that Brighton are demanding for Moises Caicedo this summer.
The Reds have already raided the south coast outfit for the services of Alexis Mac Allister during the current window and as well as signing Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig Jurgen Klopp is believed to be eager on further strengthening his options in the middle of the park.
Ecuador international Caicedo is one of the players being linked with a move to L4 and with Arsenal recently signing Declan Rice from West Ham in a deal worth £105m McManaman believes Brighton will now use that transfer to ‘set the benchmark’.
“No, they [Liverpool] won’t pay that money,” McManaman told Betfred (via The Kop Times). “I understand what Brighton are doing and if it’s true that Arsenal offered them a lot of money in the January window and they said no, then now his price tag would have gone up even more, so I don’t believe that any team would pay £100million for him.”
“He’s a good defensive midfielder, but the prices we’re talking about are ridiculous aren’t they? I presume that Declan Rice’s move to Arsenal has set the benchmark now.”
“Clubs can play the game now and claim if one defensive midfielder is worth £100million then their player is also worth that too. I very much doubt that Liverpool would pay £100million for Caicedo.”
Alongside our new No. 10, Caicedo looked the real day at the Amex Stadium last season.
As well as impressing in midfield with his dynamism and quality on the ball he also showed his versatility by operating as a right back on numerous occasions for Roberto De Zerbi’s side.
The price of transfers nowadays really is staggering so the fact that we signed Mac Allister for just £35m emphasises how good a deal we struck with Brighton.
We’d love to see his fellow South American head to L4 this summer but believe Klopp and Co. will instead target cheaper options such as Romeo Lavia or Ryan Gravenberch, for example.
#Ep76 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Liverpool Transfer Committee Show!