Chelsea risk falling into €15m Caicedo trap with two targets | OneFootball

Chelsea have already wrapped up a quick deal for Liam Delap, and they Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr who were signed earlier in the year set to arrive too.

But not all their deals will be that easy, and in fact they could be about to get into some pretty tough battles for their next waves of signings. With Delap secured, we would have thought their work up front would be done, but instead they’re pushing hard for Hugo Ekitike.

Chelsea must keep objectives clear with Ekitike

A montage of Enzo Maresca and Hugo Ekitike. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

He’s a top player with a lot going for him. But Frankfurt hold all the cards, and know they have no need to sell the player for anything less than the €100m they’re asking for.

Chelsea can battle all summer to try and get that price down, but as Tom Coley wrote for Football.London today, they risk being drawn into the same situation they did a couple of years ago with Moises Caicedo.

They knew they wanted the then-Brighton midfielder, and spent all summer trying to get the Seagulls to lower their £100m demands. In the end time ran out, they paid more than the fee the Seagulls wanted to start with, and left the Ecuador star with no preseason.

Other targets could fall the same way

Coincidentally, we had the same warnings about wing target Jaime Gittens just a couple of days ago.

If you know you want a player, sometimes the best thing to do is take your medicine and pay what it’s going to take right away, so you can benefit from having them right away.

Battling all summer to save yourself €10m (or even cost yourself €15m in the case of Caicedo) is not a sensible move.