Pat Nevin has told Real Madrid they’d have to pay around £200m to sign Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo, who is ‘an absolute genius defensively’.
Caicedo has shined for the Blues this season with some football pundits arguing he has become the best midfielder in the entire Premier League.
The 24-year-old has played a total of 114 games for Chelsea since he joined the club in a £115m move from Brighton in the summer of 2023.
There is no suggestion that Chelsea are open to selling the Ecuador international, who is under contract at Stamford Bridge until 2031.
But former Chelsea star Nevin is convinced that Caicedo is now worth £200m and would be a guaranteed starter for any team on the planet.
Get personalised updates on Chelsea every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
‘Moises Caicedo is capable of playing in any team because he’s more than a destructive player, he’s an absolute genius defensively,’ Nevin told CasinoHawks.
‘Yes, he would interest Real Madrid, but I can’t see the numbers working. I’m struggling to see the numbers working.
‘Because if he’s bought for 115 million, how much [are Real Madrid] going to have to spend to get him to give Chelsea a viable profit that they don’t feel as if they’ve lost one of their best, if not their best, player?
‘You’re talking 200 odd million.’
Pat Nevin makes worrying Chelsea prediction
Meanwhile, Nevin believes Chelsea could be set for a tricky spell from December to February after having little time to rest over the summer, when Enzo Maresca’s side were in action at the Club World Cup.
‘Chelsea still have those strange, inconsistent results, which is the difficulty,’ Nevin added.
‘This is not due to any lack of quality from Chelsea, but because they have been working continuously, playing all the way through the summer without a break.
‘They are going to get more injuries. They haven’t had Cole Palmer for a while, and they managed without Joao Pedro for a while, but they just about managed it.
‘With a full squad, everyone fit, and everyone having a good summer, it would be a different question.
‘Absolutely different question. But as it is now, these problems won’t suddenly disappear. What they’ve gone through last summer, they will get worse. They absolutely will get worse.
‘I expect December, January, and February to be the hardest times for Chelsea because of this. They have a gigantic squad, but even so, there are only so many players.
‘Look at the amount of centre-backs they’ve lost, it’s extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. This isn’t a fluke, there’s a reason for it, and one of the reasons is the lack of a summer break.’