Arsenal make second bid for Caicedo - how much will Brighton be willing to sell their star for?

Arsenal may have joined the race to sign Brighton midfielder Moisés Caicedo but are currently facing as tricky a test as Chelsea in convincing the Seagulls to part from their star player. Reports of a €68 million move for the Ecuador international last week were quickly followed by a swift rejection from Brighton. And despite the player going public with his intentions to move on this month, Arsenal have now reportedly had to up their offer to a deal that would come in at around €80m for the 21-year-old talent, according to The Athletic. 

This latest offer for Caicedo from Arsenal will certainly raise a few eyebrows, since it is now notably higher than the €63m offer Chelsea made for the midfielder earlier in the month. Assuming Mikel Arteta & co. were well aware of Brighton’s stance on the player, it would seem that they are now prepared to go all in on signing the midfielder at all costs. But how much is the young talent really worth and what will it cost for either Chelsea or Arsenal to sign him this month? 

How much is Moisés Caicedo really worth? 

Transfermarkt’s market value for the player currently stands at €38m, which was last updated on November 3, 2022. Naturally, the player’s status has improved dramatically since then and his market value is likely to increase between now and the end of the season to match the demand for the player. But how much will Brighton likely sell the player for?  Well, a quick look at the club’s record sales since winning promotion to the Premier League may give some indication. Chelsea were forced to pay €65.3m for Marc Cucurella in the summer window and Arsenal forked over €58.5m for Ben White the season before that. However, unlike Caicedo, both of these players were a good few years older than the Ecuador international is now when they moved and didn’t have a number of rich clubs chasing their signature. 

We also have to take into account the fact that Brighton have already lost at least three first team players in the aforementioned Cucurella, Yves Bissouma and Leandro Trossard. And the club’s stance on not selling their prized midfielder may simply be a case of ensuring their squad isn’t hollowed out before the end of the season - I.e, they may be willing to sell the Caicedo at some point in the future but it would take a truly ridiculous figure to let him leave the club now. Which certainly seems to be the case, following Caicedo's public response to them rejecting his move to Arsenal. As such, we've now seen Arsenal be forced into increasing their initial offer to the point that it's now looking more and more likely that the Ecuardorian talent will cost more than €80m and could yet see his eventual transfer fee climber even higher than that.