There has been a lot of talk in the past 24 hours about the situation between Brighton, Arsenal and Moises Caicedo. To first get a grip on the whole situation from a balanced perspective we need to understand the facts.
Arsenal submitted a £60million offer which was rejected football.london understands. It was this move which sparked a response from Moises Caicedo’s side to post a message publicly declaring his desire to leave but that the Gunners had nothing directly to do with it.
So far, the Gunners at the time of writing are yet to go back in with another official offer for the player. Brighton have told the club that Caicedo is not for sale this window. However, talks are ongoing between all three parties.
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Coverage has sparked plenty of debate online regarding the stubbornness of Brighton, the questionable lateness of Arsenal’s move and the level of sensibleness to the bid already made. On the side of Brighton, the offer is seen as low, whereas the Gunners see this as a very fair bid for a player bought for around £5million less than two years ago and with only around a year of English top-flight football under his belt.
From an Arsenal perspective it is fair and the bid, if anything, is above what the player would be worth on the market perhaps in different circumstances. However, it is the context which would make potentially an even higher bid not necessarily worth it to the Seagulls to sell.
Brighton sit sixth in the table, eight points off fourth with a game in hand. Last season they finished in ninth which was the highest-placed finish of the club in its history in the top flight.
The Seagulls are a club which are progressing and have achieved it through both innovative recruitments in the transfer market and with their appointments at a managerial level. However, they could have arguably performed even better had they not been pillaged in both departments.
In the last couple of years, they’ve notably lost big players like Ben White, Dan Burn, Marc Cucurella, Yves Bissouma, Leandro Trossard and now potentially Caicedo. They’ve earned a massive amount of money from this but continued to invest smartly, with record signing Enock Mwepu only costing £20million – however, they lost the Zambian after he was forced to retire following a hereditary heart condition diagnosis.
With the opportunity to make European football for the first time in their history, Caicedo is a vital player, as was Trossard prior to his Gunners switch, and losing another key player with days to go in the winter window would be a disaster. So ask the question, what’s worth more to Brighton: £60million-plus or European football and further progression toward the top level?
It’s no contest. In addition, arguments that keeping an unhappy player would be detrimental might be true at least in the short term but as has occurred in plenty of similar scenarios, players refocus and perform before earning their move later.
Liverpool had these scenarios with both Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez yet both were kept initially before being allowed to leave after they had helped the club progress further. Brighton don’t need to sell and although it is frustrating for Arsenal, it makes sense why Albion would hold firm on this position in addition to the anger and frustration from their fan base at the potential of losing another star at a crucial stage.
I remember not so long ago Arsenal being in a similar position. They couldn’t say no at first and saw Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie amongst others move on to win title and trophies.
Now, Arsenal have interest in their young stars from other teams and have already rejected approaches for the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Magalhaes. The Gunners are fighting for the title and where players like William Saliba or Gabriel Martinelli might once have considered Arsenal as a stepping stone to the Real Madrids of this world, now Mikel Arteta’s side fight for the biggest of accolades.
Why are Brighton not allowed to aspire for the same? There’s no given right to any side to always be the best and frankly, I cannot do anything but respect their stance.
For Arsenal, the challenge for sporting director Edu is to know when a deal is not doable. The Gunners must reinforce the midfield and time is running out and contingencies need to be ready should Brighton show no sign of buckling.
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