On Monday Chelsea completed the signing of Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo for a British-record fee of £115million on an eight-year contract. The Blues will pay an initial £100million, plus a further £15million in performance-related add-ons.
The signing brought an end to a lengthy transfer saga involving Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal at various points across the past eight months.
Indeed, Liverpool agreed to a £111million deal to sign Caicedo last week, only for the move to fall through when the 21-year-old informed them he intended to join Chelsea.
Caicedo had been expected to travel to Liverpool for a medical on Friday after the Merseyside club had a bid accepted by Brighton on Thursday.
And former Liverpool striker Aldridge was scathing of Chelsea and Caicedo’s decision to opt for the Blues over Jurgen Klopp’s men in his Liverpool Echo column.
Aldridge said: “Chelsea have won the race to sign Moises Caicedo. He is a very good player, make no mistake about it. He is not worth the £115million Chelsea are going to pay for him, but who is worth that? It seemed Liverpool were on course to sign Caicedo on Friday, but things soon changed.
“As soon as the player made clear he wanted to go to Chelsea over Liverpool, I didn’t want him at all. We are far bigger than Chelsea will ever be.
“Missing out on this transfer has not hurt me like when Torres left us to go there, that was awful and hard to stomach. Going to Chelsea? When I was at Oxford United, we beat them three times in the space of four months. They have bought their way to where they are.
“In terms of the reasons behind Caicedo choosing Chelsea over Liverpool, they are a London club and some players see that as a big pull. With the Louis Vuitton shop on Oxford Street and the London way of life, they view that as a huge attraction.
“Chelsea have got that, but they haven’t got the same selling point of Liverpool Football Club: history.
“We are a massive club in world football and that will always be there. If Caicedo wants to go to Chelsea, good riddance. We have to overcome this and trust Jurgen to get a player who can do that job.”
