But Chelsea is now trying to make a deal for the Ecuadorian player, even though Brighton turned down several offers from Chelsea earlier in the summer.

People think that the 21-year-old would prefer to move to Stamford Bridge.

It’s still not clear if Chelsea will match Liverpool’s offer.

Brighton had set a price for Caicedo that was more than £100 million and said they didn’t think anyone would meet it. Chelsea is thought to have offered £80 million before.

Get news, analysis, and fan opinions about Liverpool sent straight to your phone
Go right to the best Reds stuff.
Before Brighton’s first Premier League game on Saturday at 15:00 BST against Luton Town, Seagulls manager Roberto de Zerbi talked about the transfer drama.

“I have already forgotten about Moises,” De Zerbi said at a news briefing. “I’m really proud of the team members we have.

“We want to keep getting better. It should be given to the club. Our players can be bought by bigger teams, but they can’t buy our soul or spirit.

“We are Brighton, and last year we reached a big goal. We were as good as Liverpool and better than Chelsea. I want people who are proud to play in Brighton.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

The Reds are still looking for midfielders.
Last month, Liverpool lost midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Pro League. However, in June, Liverpool paid £35 million for Alexis Mac Allister, who played for Brighton with Caicedo.

Henderson, who used to lead the Reds and is now 33, joined Al-Ettifaq in a deal worth £12 million plus add-ons. Fabinho, who is 29 and from Brazil, went to Al-Ittihad for £40 million.

Jurgen Klopp, the boss of Liverpool, said on Friday, “I’ve been told that a deal has been made with Brighton.

“What changed is that we are a club with limited funds, so things happened that we didn’t expect, like Henderson and Fabinho leaving in the summer, and other things like that.

“We didn’t think about that before the summer, but when it happened, we tried it, and the club was obviously very busy at that point.”

Klopp said he “didn’t know” if Caicedo was coming to Merseyside on Friday for a test. He also wasn’t sure if this was the last thing the Reds would do in the transfer window.

The price Chelsea decided to pay for Caicedo is more than the £107 million they paid for Enzo Fernandez, an Argentine midfielder, earlier this year. Because of a sell-on clause in Caicedo’s deal, Brighton would also make money if Liverpool sold him.

Caicedo moved to Brighton from Independiente del Valle in Ecuador for £4m in February 2021, but he didn’t play in the Premier League for the first time until April 2022.

In January of this year, he asked to be moved away from Brighton. Then, Arsenal made several offers for Caicedo, which were all turned down. In March, the player signed a new deal with Brighton that will last until 2027.

Klopp has been considering different ways to rebuild his team after they came fifth in the Premier League and didn’t make it to the Champions League.

But the price they are willing to pay for Caicedo is surprising, since the club said in April that they wouldn’t try to sign England player Jude Bellingham because of how much it would cost.

Later, the 20-year-old moved to Real Madrid in a deal worth up to 133.9 million euros (£115 million).

Romeo Lavia, a 19-year-old midfielder for Southampton, was also on Klopp’s list of possible transfers. However, the Reds have had three bids for the Belgian turned down by the Saints, who allegedly value the player at £50 million.

While Chelsea was making a lot of noise about trying to sign Caicedo, it is thought that Reds CEO Billy Hogan worked quietly behind the scenes to make this deal happen.

Brighton wanted a certain amount for Caicedo, someone they thought could become one of the best in the world. Hogan’s method helped Liverpool get that amount.

It could give Klopp one of the most interesting players in the Premier League, but it would cost a lot for that to happen.

Deloitte says that if Liverpool paid £111 million for Caicedo, the Premier League would have spent more than £1.6 billion this summer.

That is still less than the record summer spending of £1.9 billion set last year, but it is already the second highest, since it is more than the £1.4 billion spent last summer.

According to Deloitte, the total amount spent on transfers between the summer of 2022 and January of 2023 was £2.4bn.

The transfer window for the Premier League ends at 23:00 BST on Friday, September 1, 2018.

Sign up to get news about Brighton
Will Caicedo be the Ferrari for Klopp?
Klopp has talked in the past about how moves cost a lot of money and what that might mean for the future of football.

In 2016, after Manchester United re-signed France midfielder Paul Pogba for then-world record £89m, the German questioned spending £100m on a star.

Klopp said, “The day this is football, I’m out of a job, because football is about working together.”

“Other teams can spend more money and get better players. I want to change how I do it.

“If I had that money, I would even change what I did.”

When asked about those words at his news conference before Sunday’s game against Chelsea, Klopp said, “Everything changed.” Like it or not? No. Did you know you were wrong? Yes.

“I’m not mad at anyone, but the market is just like that. In the end, we as a club need to make sure that we get the best player we can with the money we have.

“We’re not in a dream world where we can just point at a player and have them come in. Sometimes when one door shuts, another one opens.

“I said what I thought that day, and I know now that I was wrong. Simple to agree with that.”

In April, Klopp said that talking about big-money moves was like a 5-year-old wanting a Ferrari for Christmas.

“We can’t spend £100 million on six players in one summer,” he said.

“We do everything we can to get what we need and what we want, but sometimes we have to accept that something isn’t possible for us, and we have to move on to something else.”

Arsenal paid £105 million for England midfielder Declan Rice, and Klopp needs help badly, so Liverpool has joined the list of clubs ready to pay more than £100 million for a top player.