Manchester United are among the team’s circling like sharks around the Brighton & Hove Albion camp for one Moises Caicedo, who is emerging as one of the Premier League’s most touted stars. 

Having signed for Albion for a paltry £4.5m on deadline day during the 2021 winter transfer window, the Seagulls could be set to seismically eclipse that sum with interest from the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and indeed the Red Devils, despite the reported £85m price tag. 

It is considered that Brighton would part for a less lucrative sum, with The Sun recently regarding his worth around £70m, but with United missing out on the player last year when he ultimately penned a deal with the Seagulls, the astronomical balloon in value is a reminder of the woes suffered across the past years in the transfer market. 

Better than Fred

United are one of the most opulent outfits in world football and would be able to part with the hefty lump of cash that would be required to draw the 21-year-old away from the AMEX Stadium. 

Caicedo has been a vital cog in the Brighton team this season, starting all 14 Premier League fixtures from his marauding position in the centre. 

And his successful endeavours at club level earned him a starring role in Ecuador’s 2022 World Cup squad, where the South American outfit valiantly fought for ascension to the knockout phase but were ultimately pipped by Senegal in the culminating group fixture.

In that match, a battling 2-1 defeat, the Albion ace netted a well-taken goal to restore parity before the 2021 AFCON champions returned fire and left as victors. 

Recording a rating of 7.0 in that fixture, as per Sofascore, the central engine completed 79% of his passes and won three of his six ground duels, alongside that strike.

And as per FBref, Caicedo ranks within the top 15% for tackles and 16% for blocks against positional peers among Europe’s big five leagues this term, also completing 85.5% of his passes. 

These metrics bode well for his future career, and at just 21 years old there is plenty of room to develop into a formidable force within the European game.

The 28-cap international would likely continue this growth with the Red Devils, should he sign, and would possibly assume Brazilian midfielder Fred’s role in the team.

Fred, signed from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018 for a fee in the region of £52m, has been a fickle presence in Manchester since his move, and Caicedo would be a marked upgrade, with plenty of room to continue the rise to the top of the game. 

Fred has only managed a rating of 6.71 in the Premier League this season, only completing 33% of his duels and failing to register an average of 1.0 across any defensive metrics,

Caicedo, in retrospect, has been far more robust, earning a rating of 7.12 and recording 3.1 tackles and 1.4 interceptions, winning 58% of his duels.

Despite the lucrative price, United should plunge headfirst for Caicedo, once lauded as a “crown jewel” by Ecuadorian football historian Enrico Castro-Montes; for too many years the club have teetered around the periphery of success, and now is the time for action.