Moises Caicedo 'confirms desire to leave Brighton & Hove Albion amid Chelsea links'

Since moving to the Amex Stadium, Caicedo has been a revelation, starring since returning to his parent club in January 2022 after a loan stint with Belgian side Beerschot.

A total of 53 appearances have been made in all competitions, the Ecuador international playing an instrumental role last season as Brighton qualified for the Europa League.

However, it is an open secret that the 21-year-old has been keen to sign for a bigger club, Arsenal failing with multiple approaches in January and Chelsea being rebuffed in the same manner during the off-season.

Despite the Blues indicating that they are willing to spend in the region of £80m, Brighton have allegedly informed their Chelsea counterparts on more than one occasion that they will only sell for £100m.

Although the West Londoners retain an interest in Caicedo, negotiations have reached somewhat of an impasse, not helped by Chelsea refusing to part with former Brighton loanee Levi Colwill who is now committing his future to his parent club.

Nevertheless, according to Sussex World, Caicedo remains undeterred as he looks for a transfer away from the South-coast outfit.

Brighton held their 2022-23 awards evening on Tuesday, an occasion which was attended by Caicedo, and he is said to have told two guests that he remains keen to take on a new challenge.

The report adds that the former Independiente del Valle youngster refused to enter a discussion about a potential transfer to Chelsea, who seem by far and away the frontrunners for his signature.

While Caicedo did not feature against Chelsea during the recent tour of the United States, he did accumulate 84 minutes across two encounters with Brentford and Newcastle United.

As it stands, the assumption is that he will be available for selection when Brighton conclude their pre-season schedule against Rayo Vallecano on August 6.

From Chelsea's perspective, they announced on Tuesday evening that they had signed 19-year-old Rennes midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu for a fee in the region of £23m.

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino hinted to reporters in the hours after the addition was confirmed that Ugochukwu will now have a chance to impress before a decision is taken regarding his short-team future, a loan switch to Strasbourg an obvious possibility now that they have been purchased by Chelsea's owners.