Declan Rice to blame for Chelsea struggling to sign star - Fabrizio Romano

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 11 Jul 2023 22:46 BST
• 3 min read

Declan Rice is partly to blame for Chelsea’s struggles in completing the signing of Moises Caicedo from Brighton.

That is according to Fabrizio Romano, who has given his latest update on the saga.

Chelsea have been in negotiations to sign Caicedo for several weeks now, having made the Ecuadorian their number one midfield target.

READ MORE: Premier League 2023/24 summer transfers: All the Done Deals

The Blues have already agreed personal terms with Caicedo, who wants to move to Stamford Bridge.

However, they have struggled to agree a transfer fee with Brighton, who are asking for a price similar to the three-figure sum Arsenal paid West Ham for Declan Rice.

What did Romano say?

“It’s an important week for Chelsea and their contacts over Moises Caicedo,” Romano wrote on CaughtOffside.

“It’s not an easy deal to report on as a journalist, because there are no official bids yet – it’s a daily verbal exchange between the two clubs, a direct conversation, but it is ongoing and this week they will work again on the deal.

“The player is still hoping and pushing to join Chelsea, and already has an agreement on personal terms, so that won’t be a problem. The player has said yes, and now it’s on the clubs, and Mauricio Pochettino hopes to have Caicedo as soon as possible.

“But it’s not easy because looking at the Declan Rice deal, Brighton feel they can get something like £90-100m.”

Chelsea want Caicedo to partner Enzo Fernandez at the centre of the pitch and are undergoing a midfield revolution having lost N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek in recent weeks.

Caicedo close to Chelsea in January

Caicedo was the subject of a tug of war between Chelsea and Arsenal in the closing days of the January transfer window.

Both London sides put bids in for the Ecuador midfielder but Brighton rejected all offers.

Caicedo tried to force through a transfer by publicly requesting that he was allowed to leave.

This led to Brighton dropping Caicedo from the squad for a while.

In the end, Caicedo remained put until the end of the season as Brighton qualified for Europe for the first time in their history.

But Caicedo will almost certainly leave this summer for a big club.