Chelsea shortlist Brighton midfielders Moisés Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister — reports

Chelsea continue to play into the whole “New Brighton” joke, inadvertently or not, by supposedly shortlisting two more players from Graham Potter’s former club. Midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Moisés Caicedo have both (re-)appeared in the rumor mill even as we are supposedly set to spend ridiculous amounts on Benfica’s Enzo Fernández.

In fairness, Caicedo was on our radar well before Potter was even a twinkle in Todd Boehly’s eye, but that also means that we would be looking at a transfer fee potentially ten times what the going rate was two years ago for the Ecuador international. Still, CBS’s Ben Jacobs is getting a “real sense, from multiple sources” that a move “may” be a possibility, even if Brighton want even more than they got out of us for Marc Cucurella.

On a scale of 0-to-SpideySense, where we at on this one, Ben?

Caicedo could in theory be a successor to N’Golo Kanté, which of course would mean that we’d need a successor to Danny Drinkwater as well. Enter, Alexis Mac Allister.

Obviously, that’s a very harsh joke on Mac Allister, who was Mac Excellent at the World Cup (even as Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernández sucked up all the plaudits for Argentina).

According to The Guardian and The Times, Chelsea have “identified” the 24-year-old as an “alternative” to Enzo Fernández, should that deal prove “too costly”. Clearly we spend ages on this and looked real far and wide. Also, not sure what we might consider “too costly” if we are reportedly okay with spending €130m in the case of Enzo, but I guess we all have our limit somewhere.

Todd, are you reading my tweets? (Hope not!)