As far as sagas go, the Moisés Caicedo transfer dispute has had more drama in a short period of time than most do in a whole summer.
As a $140 million (£110 million/€127 million) deal was reached with Brighton late on Thursday night, Liverpool appeared to have pulled off a fairly extraordinary hijack after appearing headed for Chelsea for weeks (according to The Athletic).
Despite Jürgen Klopp confirming the deal just hours later at his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s clash at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea wasn’t done yet. Reports emerged suggesting Caicedo had told Liverpool he only wanted to join the Blues, and that a counter-hijack was on the way (as per Sky Sports).
In all of this drama, it’s worth remembering that Liverpool might not have even made a play for Caicedo had things panned out differently this summer.
“I got told I can confirm that the deal with the club is agreed. Whatever that means exactly in the end we will see,” Klopp said in his press conference on Friday (via the ECHO).
“What did change is we are a club who doesn’t have endless resources, so we didn’t expect a couple of things to happen in the summer — Hendo, Fab, stuff like this — we didn’t think about that before the summer to be honest, and when it happened we gave it a go.”
The departures of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho certainly took Liverpool by surprise, but the $66m (£52m/€60m) recouped from their sales perhaps enabled the Reds to go after a target that previously might have been out of their reach.
A bid the size of the one made for Caicedo is out of character for Liverpool, and certainly for Klopp, who has expressed his dislike for such hefty sums being spent on a single player. But Henderson and Fabinho’s exits have changed the landscape.
“It won’t go the other way around again. Saudi Arabia definitely won’t help with that. I’m not blaming anyone, but it just won’t help with it, another market with a lot of money,” Klopp added later in his press conference.
It’s a point well worth bearing in mind for Liverpool. Bids from Saudi Arabia for Premier League stars won’t be contained to just this summer, and the next big target from Anfield has already been identified.
“We must also start working on the signing of Mohamed Salah since he is overwhelmingly popular in the Arab world and in Europe,” Saudi Arabian football official Hafez Al-Medlej told Koura, via AS, back in June.
Salah is under contract with Liverpool until 2025, and rather encouragingly, has seemingly batted back any interest from the Gulf state so far this summer.
But Liverpool and Klopp know the offers will come next year, and while Salah is happy at Anfield for now, we don’t know what his situation will be in 12 months’ time. Henderson in particular showed how a player’s head can be turned in a short period.
If Salah is to make the move to Saudi Arabia, you can guarantee Liverpool won’t let him go cheaply, even with just a year left on his contract, with the Egyptian set to be 32 at that point. And even if he stays longer than that — with absolutely no indication yet that it is a move he would be open to making — he will eventually leave one way or another and will need replacing.
If the agreed deal for Caicedo is anything to go by (regardless of whether it ends up going through or not), Liverpool won’t be skimping on the transfer when the time comes. The budget and willingness to go big is there for the right player and there will be no more important time to get a succession plan right than with the Egyptian King who will go down as an all-time great.
