Got to say, I had to ask
@Archers Road who the hell Lavia was - all I had remembered him from was the 4-4 draw there in May when he gave the ball to Jota to score. Turns out Chelsea had tracked him for a year and had already bid £50m for him, so maybe they were always going to trump us with or without the Caicedo stuff, as their strategy seems to be to pack their squad with really good young players on 8-year contracts, in anticipation of some sort of bans down the road from the FA and UEFA. Still, had we met the £50m straight away, although I'm convinced Chelsea would have still tried to hijack it, I believe he would be ours now - but still an incredible risk. And, vitally (and why Chelsea wanted him so desperately IMO) he's English registered, I believe?
As for Caicedo, good as he is, this time last week I never thought in a million years we'd be in a £111 tussle for him - we don't spend that type of money, and it's 40% over his true value (if there is such a thing with Chelsea distorting the market atm). Not sour grapes at all, but apart from the humiliating snub, the sour taste in my mouth is why didn't we at least TRY to do that with Bellingham?
We publicly said we couldn't compete on price, but we've just shifted £1m a week off our wage bill and we've got more than the asking price to chuck at Caicedo - half the player of Bellingham. And also, if we've got 3100m to blow on a DM, surely Rice was better target than Caicedo.
So there's a feeling of 'loss' over Lavia, to a large extent - but Caicedo? Certainly no more than Tchumainei last season. Surely we knew Fab had only another season at best in his legs, so we were making plans anyway for a DM? Though let's be honest, our strategy is completely ****ed now. Buying Endo may or may not be seen as an act of Melo-like desperation - but chucking £111m at Caicedo has no maybe about it.