After Moises Caicedo trade, Liverpool is again in a rut.
Liverpool has been in this situation before
with Premier League rivals, having missed
out on Chelsea’s pursuit of Moises Caicedo.
When Chelsea announced that they had
defeated Liverpool in the competition to
recruit Moises Caicedo, the official Twitter
account of the London club proclaimed, “It’s only ever been Chelsea.”
Although there may be some truth to this
message, these five words were perhaps the
last thing Liverpool fans expected to hear.
Caicedo has publicly acknowledged he was
raised a Chelsea fan; was the Reds ever
actually his team of choice?
The teaser video used to confirm the arrival
of the midfielder showed him sporting
Chelsea’s 2023/24 home kit before cutting to
an old image of the player in his home
country in the club’s 2020/21 home strip. A
separate image emerged of the 21-year-old
adoring a shirt of Independiente del Valle,
an Ecuadorian club he joined in 2016, with
Kante printed on the back.
Doubling down on his love for the
Londoners during his first interview with
the club, Caicedo said: “It was always a dream to play for Chelsea. Yeah, I support
Chelsea. When I was a kid, because I saw a
lot of players in the midfield, like (Claude)
Makelele and N’Golo Kante. They were my
inspiration for me to support Chelsea. I’m so
happy to be working for Mauricio
Pochettino. He speaks Spanish as well. This
is so good for me because I can understand more.”
Listed above are three separate reasons why
Caicedo chose Chelsea as his next club. It is
also understood that Pochettino’s side
offered increased personal terms compared
to the package presented by the Reds.
And another factor in this move could be
credited to the London lifestyle, something
Liverpool have learned the hard way can be
a major selling point to players.
A separate transfer battle with Chelsea a
decade ago ended up with Willian heading
for Stamford Bridge, a decision he recently
explained was due to the pull of the capital city.
“I went to London and Liverpool and
Tottenham (Hotspur) were interested. I was
negotiating with both, not Chelsea. And in
my heart the dream was to go to Chelsea,”
the current Fulham winger told Premier
League Brasil. “Proposals came from both of
them and, as I wanted to stay in London, I
decided that I’d go to Tottenham. Chelsea
made an offer and I didn’t think twice. It
was something I really wanted, with all due
respect to Tottenham, who are also a great
club, but my dream was to play for Chelsea.”
The same scenario played out one year later
in 2014 as Liverpool searched for a Luis
Suarez replacement. Alexis Sanchez, then of
Barcelona, was viewed as the man to fill the
gigantic void left behind by the Uruguayan
and the Reds pulled out all the stops to get a
deal over the line – even enlisting the help of
Steven Gerrard.
“We felt we needed to get a world-class
operator, to go like-for-like,” then Liverpool
manager Brendan Rodgers explained in
2017. “It was always going to be very
difficult to replace Luis. Alexis was that
player. We thought we had him.”
Even the words of Gerrard were not enough
as the Reds missed out on another transfer
target thanks to the lure of London. Writing
in his 2016 autobiography, the legendary
midfielder explained: “I tried hard with
Sanchez. I was hoping I could ride the wave
of our fantastic 2013-14 season. He was
great in the way he responded; his English
was good and we had some detailed text exchanges.
“Just when I thought we were getting
somewhere, Sanchez pointed out, politely
but honestly, that he appreciated my career
was coming to an end and he felt he needed
to be careful before signing a contract with
Liverpool. Essentially, he wasn’t really
certain of Liverpool’s future and had a lot
more confidence in Arsenal. I appreciated
the fact he was open and candid about his
reasons. Being in London was another
attraction for him and his girlfriend.”
Offering his side of events, then Liverpool
CEO Ian Ayre was left frustrated by
geographical reasons once again dictating a
deal. “There was much-publicised interest in
Alexis Sanchez, as part of the deal which
saw Luis go to Barcelona, and that deal was
done,” he told Sky Sports. “The only reason it
wasn’t was that the player and his wife
wanted to live in London. We couldn’t move
the football club to London, unfortunately!”
For Jurgen Klopp, it is so often the case of
finding the ‘right player’ for Liverpool. If it
was only ever Chelsea for Caicedo, perhaps
missing out on this transfer could be a
blessing in disguise.
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