Top source confirms new Chelsea bid for Man Utd and Liverpool target, with Pochettino aiming to get his man ‘this week’

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has revealed Chelsea are on the verge of launching a new bid for Manchester United and Liverpool target Moises Caicedo, and an agreement could be struck as early as ‘this week’.

On July 5, it emerged that Chelsea were in ‘concrete’ talks to sign Caicedo from Brighton, having failed to do so in the January transfer window. But two days later Man Utd joined them in the chase, with the Mirror revealing how Erik ten Hag could use Scott McTominay in a player-plus-cash deal for Caicedo.

After TEAMtalk exclusively revealed Brighton ‘accept’ they will lose Caicedo this summer – but only for the right price – the midfielder put major clubs on alert by stating that he ‘can’t say no’ if Chelsea come calling for him.

Unfortunately for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, the race for Caicedo got even busier on Friday as Liverpool got involved. The Reds believe the Ecuadorian can be a great replacement for Jordan Henderson at Anfield.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano has now provided the latest on Chelsea’s push for Caicedo. He claims Chelsea are trying to get the transfer over the line ‘this week’ and are therefore willing to up their bid, which was previously £70m plus add-ons.

Although, Brighton’s asking price – which is thought to be as high as £100m – could make the deal complicated.

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“We are entering into a really important week,” Romano said. “I know that the expectation two weeks ago was this week to get a deal done for Chelsea. They tried in the conversation with Brighton.

“But I’m told this new week Chelsea are prepared to improve their proposal for Moises Caicedo. It’s a laidback conversation as I’m always telling you, it’s not an official bid, it’s a direct conversation between Chelsea and Brighton.

Fabrizio Romano discusses Moises Caicedo to Chelsea

“The initial discussion was around £70m plus add-ons and it was not enough for Brighton, now Chelsea are prepared to go for a bid that would be more than £70m plus add-ons to convince Brighton.

“It’s never easy with Brighton as we know, so we don’t have any guarantee that the deal will be done this week. But the hope of Chelsea is to get the deal done this week.”

As previously mentioned, Brighton have upped their price for Caicedo to around £100m. That comes after Declan Rice’s move from West Ham to Arsenal for an initial £100m, plus an extra £5m in bonuses. Brighton feel Caicedo has the potential to be just as good as Rice and therefore only want him to move for a similar fee.

As such, Caicedo heading to Stamford Bridge depends on how high Chelsea are willing to go when bidding, and whether Brighton are happy to compromise and accept a reduced fee. At this moment in time, it seems Chelsea are some way off reaching an agreement, despite their latest push.

There is still the potential for either Man Utd or Liverpool to disrupt Pochettino’s plans with a proposal of their own. But Man Utd and Liverpool do not have as much money to spend as Chelsea, which means they will struggle to outbid the west London outfit.

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