‘Weakened their position’: Arsenal are now less and less likely to sign ‘unbelievable’ player – journalist

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Arsenal’s position in the race to sign Moises Caicedo this summer has been weakened by their persistence in January.

That is according to Ben Jacobs who stated on The Done Deal Show, that Arsenal may have shown their hand too soon in the race for Caicedo.

As we know, Arsenal made multiple bids for the Ecuadorian in the winter, but according to Jacobs, these bids may now work against Arsenal.

Indeed, after Brighton qualified for Europe and gave Caicedo a new contract, they’d be well within their rights to say that his value has gone up, and after seeing that Arsenal valued him at £70m in January, they could ask for even more this summer.

According to Jacobs, the feeling is that Arsenal’s position in this race is now weaker than it was before.

Arsenal in a weaker position

Jacobs shared what he knows about the ‘unbelievable’ player.

“If the same thing happens again then I expect the fee for Caicedo to be higher than whatever Mac Allister goes for. If you’re Arsenal and you go for Declan Rice, you best hope that deal is worth less than £100m, because otherwise your Caicedo-Rice output will be a large chunk of your transfer budget. Arsenal have work to do, they want to consolidate their position and they need depth,” Jacobs said.

“It is complicated, I think they’ll escalate Rice and Caicedo, but make no mistake about this, Brighton aren’t saying ‘give us this and we will sell Caicedo.’ If no club pushes it then Brighton will keep the player. There’s no pricetag, but there is a feeling that Arsenal have weakened their position by insisting on Caicedo in January. Chelsea were smarter with one offer that was lower and then they walked away. If they’re the only suitor they can stick to a lower number, but if Arsenal return there’s a high probability that Brighton can say ‘you offered £70m in January, he’s signed a new contract, we’ve qualified for Europe, so now you have to give us well in excess of £70m.’”

Poker

There’s a reason the transfer market is so complicated, and in reality, it’s just one big game of poker.

There are bluffs, double bluffs and in this example and early gamble that hasn’t paid off.

Arsenal showed their hand too soon here, and Brighton are now able to dictate what happens next on their own terms as they know what Arsenal’s internal valuation of Caicedo was before he signed his new deal and Brighton finished sixth.

This transfer could well be a complicated one for Arsenal to conclude.