Chelsea: Kepa out, Caicedo in

It is a busy Monday at Stamford Bridge as Kepa Arrizabalaga joined Real Madrid on loan and Moises Caicedo complete his protracted transfer from Brighton to West London.

Arrizabalaga has become a Los Blancos player and will arrive on loan to the Spanish capital from Chelsea without any option to buy at the end of the season.

The Basque will replace the injured Thibaut Courtois as the starting goalkeeper, with the Belgian ruled out for a long period of time.

On Tuesday, at Ciudad Real Madrid, Kepa will be presented as a new Real Madrid player. After, he will attend a press conference with the media.

At 28 years of age, Kepa lands in the Spanish capital after a great year in London where he managed to regain the lost starting position and enjoyed one of his best seasons.

He played a total of 39 games and was one of Chelsea's better players. He has also become a regular in the Spain squad.

 

However, the arrival of Robert Sanchez for a fee of 25 million euros opened the exit door for the former Athletic Cub goalkeeper, who seemed to be set to join Bayern Munich.

The appearance of Real Madrid at the last minute caused Kepa himself to stop the agreement with the German team to return to Spain.

After Courtois' painful injury, Real Madrid looked to Bono, but the possibility of bringing on loan a goalkeeper of Kepa's quality ended up tipping the balance as it was a much more economical and strategically more favorable operation for the future of Real Madrid's goalkeeping.

Kepa, who holds the honor of being the most expensive goalkeeper in history after the 80 million euros that Chelsea paid Athletic for him, arrives at Real Madrid with the very complicated task of replacing the man considered by many to be the best goalkeeper in the world. He does, though, have a head start now with Courtois' injury.

Also, Caicedo's future seems to be solved and it is a matter of passing the medical exams for him to change teams in the Premier League.

After negotiations with Chelsea and Liverpool, Brighton & Hove Albion reached a record deal with the Blues for the sale of the player.

According to information from Fabrizio Romano and The Athletic, the Ecuadorian will be sold for 115 million pounds, equivalent to 133 million euros.

He will have to undergo medical examinations this Monday when it is expected that his signing for the London club will be made official.

Liverpool also bid for Caicedo and would have offered 110 million pounds, but the Reds and Jurgen Klopp will be left without the player. The agreement would be for eight years, until 2031, with an option for one more.

Chelsea and Liverpool faced each other on Sunday in the first matchday of the 2023-24 Premier League season, with a 1-1 draw.

Brighton made their debut with a 4-1 defeat against newly promoted Luton, a match for which Caicedo was not called up. The Ecuadorian played 45 games, 42 starts in the last two Premier League campaigns.

The signing of Caicedo surpasses the record £107 million paid by Chelsea to Benfica for Enzo Fernandez earlier this year.