Liverpool already know the perfect transfer plan Moisés Caicedo ‘Plan B’. Repeating Jude Bellingham’s answer would give Jürgen Klopp a truly impressive squad.
When news surfaced on Friday that Liverpool had agreed a $140m (£110m/127m) deal with Brighton to sign Moisés Caicedo, Liverpool fans were excited. .
Amid a lengthy and energy-hungry Romeo Lavia saga, the Reds appear to have found the best defensive midfielder on the market, smashing club and Premier League transfer records in the process. .
Still, one or two nagging doubts remained. After spending a historic amount, does Liverpool really have the money to do the extra business it needs?
The deal will bring Liverpool’s net spending for the transfer window, which has only exceeded $66 million (£52m/€60m) only once in the past 10 years, to 195m (£154m//$15m/€) 178 million euros). Liverpool’s closest to that figure was $155m (£122m/€141m) in 2018, but even that frenzy was aided by a $185m (£146m) transfer England) / 169 million euros) from Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona.
Unlike this year, the Red Devils could also rely on revenue from the Champions League back then, and no outside investment has been game-changing in the years since. As such, it looks like Liverpool are about to go all out on Caicedo and, for all his excellence, that will leave holes in the team.
After seeing seven midfielders in the 2022/23 season leave the club, including Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, it is understandable that many Liverpool fans are calling for two more signings instead of just one.
And more importantly, the Reds clearly need another centre-back, with three of his four picks prone to injury and three out of four also performing poorly. The move to three full-backs in Jürgen Klopp’s new system gives the club one more reason to sign a new face.
Left unchecked, that’s the kind of weakness that could prevent Liverpool from being truly competitive, as they expect to do after unprecedented efforts. Indeed, the last time Liverpool really spent big this summer (this 2018 transfer window), they won the Champions League and finished second in the Premier League with 97 points.
By turning almost all of their remaining budget into a deal for Caicedo, Liverpool would also be contradicting their own logic. When the club pulled out of the race for Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund in April, they insisted it would make more sense to split resources between several players, rebuilding the midfield completely.
In the end, the Reds signed Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for a total of $121m (£95m/€110m), $25m less than Real Madrid could pay for Bellingham. Most fans applaud the wisdom of this method.
With Chelsea now poised to win the race for Caicedo after the Ecuadorian made his preference clear (Fabrizio Romano reports that the deal is done), Liverpool could repeat that plan.
First pick is expected to be Tyler Adams, who was dropped after traveling to London for a medical with Chelsea (via The Athletic). He is available for just $25m (£20m/€23m) via a relegation release clause in his contract with Leeds United, and it looks like there’s no doubt at this stage. , especially with the obvious interest from Liverpool earlier this summer.
