Manchester United links with £90m star have his team-mate fearing exit

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Reports linking Moises Caicedo with Manchester United appear to be ruffling feathers at Brighton and Hove Albion with one of the midfielder’s team-mates admitting ‘fear’ over his future. 

If Alexis Mac Allister’s move to Liverpool last week taught us anything, it’s that a long-term contract does not necessarily mean a long-term stay.

Mac Allister was unveiled as Liverpool’s new number ten just months after signing a new deal with Brighton. Moises Caicedo, meanwhile, only put pen to paper on a contract of his own back in March, but still has the Premier League’s big hitters swarming around him like a wasp around a crisp beer garden pint.

Arsenal saw a number of offers rejected in January. The Gunners are preparing to test Brighton’s resolve again with a £75 million offer (London World). Manchester United cannot be discounted yet either, per Sky Sports, even if Erik ten Hag appears to be prioritising a more attack-minded ‘number eight’ with Mason Mount his top target.

Is Moises Caicedo on his way out of Brighton?

“Having a player of Moi’s characteristics, we all fear that he will leave,” admits Pervis Estupinan, a team-mate of Caicedo’s for both Brighton and Ecuador (The Argus).

“If he stays, I will be very happy to keep playing alongside him and enjoying his football. If he goes, I will wish him all the best because he is a good lad, a good professional. He is a machine.

“If he leaves, we will be opponents. All I’ll ask is he doesn’t give me a whack because he is very strong!”

Caicedo was outstanding during Man United’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Brighton at Wembley. Combining brilliant ball-winning ability with a very underrated passing range, Caicedo would be an ideal understudy – and long-term replacement – for Casemiro, a man ten years his senior.

United famously – or should that be infamously? – walked away from a deal to sign a then-teenage Caicedo for just £4.5 million back in 2021, as reported by The Athletic, when he was still plying his trade back home in Ecuador for Independiente del Valle.

Caicedo may now cost a staggering £90 million (The Independent).

“The offers were received. You see what is on the table, and Moises says that he wants to go forward. That it is the dream of his whole life; an opportunity that may not be repeated,” Caicedo’s agent said recently when explaining why that Arsenal move collapsed in January.

“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Maybe he trains and picks up an injury. We can’t know what’s going to happen. Brighton did not sell him. They understand the situation, and they love him very much.”