Arsenal showed how capable they are of signing players from fellow Premier League clubs during the recent summer transfer window as they brought in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City.
Another top-flight player that the Gunners were linked with over the summer was Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Moises Caicedo, who could have been Arsenal’s own version of another player they’ve come up against on many occasions in the Premier League – N’Golo Kante.
Brighton signed the player back in February last year for a fee of £4.5m. Since then, the 20-year-old has made 16 senior appearances for the club, scoring two goals and providing two assists in the process.
In terms of being Arsenal’s own version of Kante, Ecuadorian football expert, Enrico Castro-Montes, had this to say about the youngster.
He said: “There will be a lot of pressure on Caicedo’s shoulders. His nickname in Ecuador is ‘La Joya’, the jewel. In his own country, he is really seen as the crown jewel of a new generation.
“Caicedo really has everything to become the best Ecuadorian footballer of all time. I think that off the ball, he is indeed somewhat reminiscent of Kante, but on the ball, he resembles Paul Pogba with his flair and his technique.
“That’s also how they describe him in Ecuador: a cross between Kante and Pogba.”
Bearing in mind how the Brighton star has won more tackles (10) than any other player at the south coast club in the league so far this season and has the third-highest number of successful pressures (30), this shows the similarities between him and the Chelsea midfielder, who ended his previous campaign with the third-highest number of successful tackles (34) and successful pressures (134) at Stamford Bridge.
Moving forward, even though former Brighton manager, Graham Potter, had previously suggested that a bid of £100m could be a ballpark figure to sign the Ecuadorian, Arsenal should definitely explore the possibility of signing Caicedo in the near future.
