Can someone here explain to me why anyone would want to pay Brighton £80m or more for him when ugarte’s release clause is £53m?
Caicedo's almost certainly better on the ball and generally more versatile. Brighton fans have talked about the advantage of his being able to push up and drive moves as well as intervening and recycling the ball. Ugarte I guess would work OK alongside a De Jong stand-in, or someone who can do all parts of that number 8 role, including dictating pace, playmaking, driving with the ball etc, though maybe I just havent seen enough of Ugarte...
I repeat this too often, but, if I'm one of these players, like Caicedo, who's been pursued already by big clubs (as he was before brighton, i..e by us) and is confident of making it at very highest level at a United or Madrid, why not counteroffer Bloom/ his team and take short-term lower basic wage in return for a release clause, or otherwise just not sign the contract. Same goes for Ferguson and his new deal.
The Caicedo thing started with ridiculous agent situation, so this also needs to be regulated worldwide and no player allowed to be registered without being signed to a single agent (with none of this 'buying rights in players' on the part of private individuals) otherwise they can't sign for a UEFA club, for instance, or any club that does sign players registered illegitimately can be severely punished etc. But that's beyond the scope of the club of course