Chelsea are confident that they are close to finalising a British record transfer for Brighton & Hove Albion, sources have confirmed to 90min.
Liverpool had agreed a deal with Brighton to sign Caicedo on Thursday evening worth £111m and the 21-year-old was due on Merseyside for a medical on Friday morning.
However, it quickly became apparent that Caicedo was not going to travel to the north of England as he and his agents made it clear to Brighton that he would still prefer a move to Chelsea. The Blue had previously seen a number of bids rejected, the biggest of which had been worth £80m and was still someway short of the minimum £100m asking price required by the Seagulls.
Now, whilst an agreement is not yet finalised, 90min has been informed that talks are progressing between Chelsea and Brighton and the deal is set to be worth in excess of the £111m fee agreed with Liverpool earlier in the week. Once confirmed, it would break Chelsea's own British record which they set in January when signing Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in a deal worth £106m
90min can also confirm that talks between Caicedo have accelerated to the point that personal terms are all finalised and the Ecuadorian is ready to put pen to paper on an eight-year contract as soon as the two clubs confirm an agreement over price is in place.
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Chelsea are hopeful that they could parade both Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, who is close to finalising move from Southampton after a £55m fee was agreed, ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash with, ironically, Liverpool, who not only wanted Caicedo but also had multiple bids for Lavia rejected.
For their part, Brighton are already moving forward with the belief that Caicedo is no longer theirs and boss Roberto De Zerbi considers him a former player.
"I have already forgotten about Moises," he said. "I'm really proud of the players we have in the squad. We want to keep improving. The credit goes to the club. Bigger clubs can buy our players but they can't buy our soul or spirit.
"We don't have enough [players] yet, we need to complete the squad. I want players who want to come here. We are Brighton, we achieved a big target last year - the same as Liverpool, better than Chelsea. I would like players who are proud to play in Brighton."
LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN'S TALKING TRANSFERS PODCAST
On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth, Graeme Bailey and Sean Walsh to discuss the ever-changing Moises Caicedo saga, Harry Kane's move to Bayern Munich and more!
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