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.