WANTED: Chelsea close to seal £100m-rated Caicedo

Chelsea are closing in on the signing of Moisés Caicedo from Brighton and are attempting to hijack Liverpool’s move for Roméo Lavia after submitting a £48m bid for the Southampton midfielder.

Caicedo is Mauricio Pochettino’s top midfield target this summer and talks between the clubs are understood to have progressed this week. Brighton have been holding out for at least £100m for the Ecuador international but it is unclear if Chelsea will agree to pay that much. Chelsea, who hope to have Caicedo signed in time to face Liverpool on Sunday, have been trying to negotiate a lower fee and their most recent bid was worth £80m.

There has been no agreement yet and the lack of movement is understood to have frustrated Caicedo. The 21-year-old was unavailable for Brighton’s friendly against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, with the club attributing his absence to a hamstring problem, and was absent from training on Monday.

Sources close to Caicedo, who wants to move to Stamford Bridge, maintained that his absence from training was not down to injury. Brighton are trying to strengthen by signing the attacking midfielder Mohammed Kudus from Ajax.

Chelsea have been working hard to add more depth and experience in midfield. They are also in talks over a £20m move for Leeds United’s Tyler Adams and stepped up their interest in Lavia on Wednesday night.

Liverpool have had multiple bids turned down for Lavia – the latest worth £45m – and Southampton want £50m for the Belgium international. The former Manchester City player has also attracted interest from Arsenal and Manchester United, while Chelsea have been monitoring him all summer. Chelsea tried to sign Lavia last year and have now put pressure on Liverpool by making an official bid. They have also been linked with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall but Leicester do not want to sell the midfielder.

Brighton’s stance on Caicedo, who signed a new deal earlier this year, has been informed by West Ham selling Declan Rice to Arsenal for £105m. They can also point to Chelsea breaking the British transfer record when they bought the Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernández for £106.8m in January. Pochettino’s only two senior midfielders are currently Fernández and Conor Gallagher, with his other options made up of players with little Premier League experience. Chelsea are due to loan the Italian midfielder Cesare Casadei to Leicester.

Chelsea have spent heavily since being bought by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital last summer and confidence is rising that they are about to pay another large fee to land Caicedo. Pochettino is also interested in a striker but will not be signing Juventus’s Dusan Vlahovic. The manager is prepared to keep the teenage striker Mason Burstow as part of the first-team squad. Burstow impressed during pre-season.

Bayern Munich are in talks over signing the Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga on loan. Thomas Tuchel, Bayern’s manager, worked with Arrizabalaga during his time at Chelsea, who have added competition in goal after signing Robert Sánchez from Brighton for £25m.

Pochettino has named the right-back Reece James as his new captain. Ben Chilwell is Chelsea’s new vice-captain.