Billy Talbot

Means nothing if we get a £20m bid on deadline day.

You're not invited.

I would imagine the latest is seeing if we can sever him from is agents. And how much that costs. Very Mascherano,

Isn't that what they've said? Obviously they've said it very quietly, cos they REALLY don't want to get involved any further than they have to. yeah., that's not how it works.

It was mentioned, but I think erroneously, given that the deadline for new signings to be available for Sunday I read somewhere was 12pm, maybe due to tonight's evening KO.

They can't match our bid can they?

So what happens the next time Brighton say to buying clubs, "we're setting a deadline" or whatever other mechanism they use to try to get deals done at the highest prices? The clubs just say "ah f*ck you Brighton, we know how this works, we just lowball you and agree terms with the player. Btw do you want some of our castoffs?" It's in Brighton's interests to see this through, or at least be further compensated and being seen to have genuinely tried to see it through. And I'm not snotting fair btw. I know it's not fair and that's how it is. But there are several angles to this.

Has the player said no? really said no? As in, “no, I will only sign for Chelsea?” I don’t reckon he has. And I don’t think it would be in Brighton’s interests to entertain that kind of thing from their players. Even at the expense of saying, well “no, you’ll stay here then.”. At least in the short term. like I said, he’ll have to kick off proper, or Chelsea are gonna have stump up well more than £111m. Not “in the region”. Not in the short term anyway. What’s in it for Brighton to accept another bid other than to get it done unless the player is publicly refusing to do anything else? which he isn’t. He’s publicly saying he wants Chelsea to agree a fee with Brighton cos he’d rather go there because he feels they really want him due to the time and effort they’ve put in so far. That’s not the same.

His agents probably thought that is bidding would flush out Chelsea to match our bid. hasn’t quite worked out that way for them… yet.

Cos like I said. Brighton rely on trading players. It’s a long term strategy. Buying low and selling high and getting the best deals at both ends involves being seen to act in good faith by buying and and selling clubs. They’re not gonna publicly tarnish that for an extra £1m, or even £9m over one deal that’s over £100m. That’s just bad business. if the player really does chuck his toys out then that’s different. Brighton will, after all want to get the deal done.

Yeah, Brighton's reputation and standing as a negotiator that will take a hit if they now sell to Chelsea. They're a club that depends on buying and selling players to stay in the PL. £112 won't cut it. I don't think £120m will either, not unless the player starts to kick up a right stink. Caciedo's team has already got his excuse in for not being on the first train of out Euston this morning too. That they think Chelsea deserve to be listened to because of the work they've put in.

I reckon that's entirely plausible. It's also plausible that we have cash on the hip and a lot more leeway with FFP and are willing to pay a lot more up front than Chelsea will be able to, no matter how much they offer in total.

Well it worked from Brighton's POV. They got Chelsea to stop ****ing around and got a bid that they would accept and have avoided the whole not selecting him for matches scenario. All depends on if Brighton ever want to use this as a negotiating tactic ever again and if Chelsea's extra money is worth cashing that in. And, this kind of shenanigans will be encouraged by the player's reps as it allows them to leverage Chelsea's continued interest with personal terms. We're right to want to get it done ASAP. The longer it goes on, the more it will cost us.

I'm choosing to believe this is all media mischief. Was all about personal terms not expected to be a problem and how a contract was discussed in January etc, etc.

Has he signed yet? Where is he?

TBH, that was my first thought when I read we’d become interested. I can’t see it though. It’s gone too far for that.

He’s played at Anfield and Stamford bridge. He’ll know which is the bigger club. It’ll be wages that tip it though if Brighton accept bids from both clubs.

Chelsea were the only show in town for caicedo though, so his preference would have been Chelsea over staying at Brighton.

Aren’t Chelsea a little hamstrung with ffp?

Perhaps he means *ahem* that now we're out of the Champions League, we have to spend more money in order to get back in it. That's what he should be saying anyway.

We don’t qualify for the CL and Courtois does his ACL. Typical.

Just buy them both to end the speculation.

Yeah, I tend to agree. If we've bid more than Chelsea have though, that puts something in the "feels most wanted" column. We won't pay him like Chelsea will, but he will get to play for Liverpool and not Chelsea.

Yeah, I think we can do it in some games, at certain points in games, at certain scorelines, but to have it as a plan A seems daft without the personnel to do it properly. I'm starting to lean towards wanting Gomez to start at RB on Sunday, with Trent in midfield. And I'm not a fan of putting Trent in midfield, or of Gomez at RB particularly. But the thought of Mudryk running into to open space all game gives me the fear.

Aye. Also looks like he's gonna be a card magnet.