Brighton CEO Paul Barber says Moises Caicedo only wanted to join Chelsea this summer despite reaching an agreement with Liverpool.
The Reds agreed a £111m deal for the 21-year-old with the Seagulls but he turned down a transfer to Anfield in bid to complete his dream move to the Blues who had multiple bids rejected.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side announced the signing of Caicedo for a £100m fee that could rise to a British club record of £115m on Tuesday. The Ecuador international, who moved to the Amex Stadium in February 2021, has penned an eight-year contract with an option of a further year.
“First of all, Liverpool is a fantastic football club. For any footballer to have the chance to play at Liverpool, you would imagine they would be running up the M6 and M62, but it wasn’t to be,” Barber told talkSPORT.
“Moises and his advisors decided, for whatever reason, that London was their preferred destination and, ultimately, Chelsea.
“In that situation, we’re in a slightly difficult position because we had negotiated a deal, working many days with Liverpool to get a deal agreed and they couldn’t have done any more. They were superb and professional throughout, but then it comes down to the player at that point and we are very much out of the loop because it is a discussion between the player and Liverpool.
“At the point it was clear he wasn’t going to Liverpool, then we have to go into a different mode because, having negotiated a British-record transfer, we’ve then got to do it again three days later. We started working with Chelsea as soon as we realised Liverpool were not able to proceed and, at that point, we’ve got to protect our own interests. Our interests are our player and making sure we realise the value for that player that we were expecting.”
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