The Gunners’ offer of £60 million for midfielder Moises Caicedo was turned down by Brighton. Chelsea already had a £55m proposal rejected this January as Brighton hope to keep the player at least until the summer.
Now, the League’s frontrunners are determining how much they are willing to spend on the Ecuadorian international player in order to seal a transaction before the transfer window shuts one week from now.
This week, the manager of Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, confessed that his team needs more coverage in the midfield but that it would be difficult to find such players in the current market.
However, he does not want to finish the season relying just on Albert Sambi Lokonga to fill in for Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka. He would want to have other options.
After sustaining a knee injury, Mo Elneny is looking at a lengthy recovery period, so Arteta is ramping up his quest for one more signing this month to give his team the depth they need to continue their pursuit of the championship.
But Brighton is not going to release 21-year-old Caceido without such a fight, as they have previously rejected Chelsea’s bid of £55 million to acquire his services.
The south coast club has a history of demanding the whole amount that they are asking for, and they have declined to enter into discussions prior to the sales of Ben White, Marc Cucurella, and Yves Bissouma in the last couple of years.
It is believed that they may want as much as £100 million for Caicedo, despite the fact that they paid just £4.5 million to get him from the Ecuadorian team Independiente del Valle two years ago.
It is unclear if Arsenal would be prepared to pay such a hefty price given that they have recently completed the acquisition of Leandro Trossard from Brighton for an initial sum of £21 million plus up to $5 million in add-ons.
They also bought Polish defender Jakub Kiwior from Spezia for £17.5 million. They could pay an extra £3.5 million for his services.
