CM: Why Milan said no to signing Caicedo for €2m amid €133m Chelsea move

By Oliver Fisher -

Moises Caicedo has been at the centre of a transfer tug-of-war this summer between Chelsea and Liverpool, but AC Milan passed on the chance to sign him.

Calciomercato.com write how Caicedo has joined Chelsea for €133m making him a ‘stratospheric coup’ for the Blues, who beat Liverpool to his signature after what was a transfer saga that had many twists and turns.

He leaves Brighton who are started to establish themselves as a talent factory, but before he ended up with them he could have made the move to Italy to join Milan.

Back in 2020 the scouting area had picked out the Ecuador international as a talent for the future, but the management team led by Paolo Maldini did not feel like spending €2m on a player who was not ready.

Three years later, Caicedo is the most expensive midfield signing in football history and there may be a feeling of regret that the Rossoneri did not make their move.

Tags AC Milan Moisés Caicedo

42 Comments

  1. What a significant jump. From 2m to 133m. But it depends on the league where he plays and also how he does his way to become top footballer.

  2. Maldini : he is not ready . Just the same like the coach he choose , pioli : he is not ready . Both have same vibes , maybe thats why both can work together for long time

    1. yeah but De Zerbi who won jack sh*t is ready because you said so

      Nagelsmann who got 0 suitors this whole summer is ready because you said so

    2. But he brought in Tonali that wasn’t ready, Leao that wasn’t ready, Theo Hernandez that wasn’t ready, Tomori that wasn’t ready, Thiaw that wasn’t ready.

      You all with your biased mindset, is Caicedo better than Tonali?

      1. Kalulu wasn’t ready too.

        The real reason was because Caicedo was hellbent on joining Man Utd but Man Utd gave up signing him due to many intermediares involved.

    3. Don’t get pulled into the divisiveness. When we missed out on targets that get sold for more later on, it’s the team led by Maldini. When it turns out great…scouted by Moncada. Tired of hearing that tbh.

      1. No , i was joking but ppl above your comment take it too seriously . Remember pioli famous quote ? He is not ready . Now this article : maldini say he is not ready too. Same vibe with pioli, maybe thats why maldini hire pioli and extend pioli contract , hahahaha. I dont have intention involved in faction war here between M &M vs F & M

      2. 💯💯💯💯💯 – ya like us and a million other clubs passed on him as well.

        More BS stories to divide….click bait. Funny how they never mention the players M&M wanted to sign but could not because ownership said no: W Fofana, szlobazlai, Botman, Koné, Olmo, etc…how much are they all worth now or were they sold for?

        Selective facts and hindsight are a wonderful blissful thing lol

        MOVE ON

  3. he developed under de zerbi , if we bought him he would have been a backup to the great krunic and his market value is 5m tops , the kid is lucky we passed on him!

  4. Why doesn’t the article address the question why Milan said no? Please tell me it’s because Maldini didn’t feel like spending 2M because he was not ready…sorry but the writing is not good enough. It did not go into detail of how and why the decision was made which makes Maldini seem incompetent. Was there a budget? Why did he feel he was not ready? 2020 was a long year for everyone involved…please provide more information as your subscribers deserve to know the details or as much detail as possible about the decision.

    1. One of the reason, this article was written by journalist and no journalist know all the inside story of the club – so they just write what they know. The known facts are :
      1. We have chance to sign Caicedo, who was a young promising player from Ecuador at 2020 for 2m.
      2. Maldini did not sign him because he thought the player was not ready to play for Milan.
      3. He is right, Caicedo at 2020 is not ready to play regularly at Europe, he didn’t play at Premier league at all before he is loaned to Beerschot September 2021. He started playing regularly on March 2022.

  5. Milan made mistake by giving Maldini the power to identify talents all around, since he was a defender, he cannot be crucified for not been able to spot good midfielders and strikers, seedorf, pirlo and kaka would readily know a better midfielders more than Maldini as he would have known a better defender….the idiot IMO was masara and Pioli who dont even know what it takes to know a good skillset for their team.

    1. That’s not an excuse.

      As a sporting director he, and Massara, were expected and responsible to make decision.

      His status as club legend, as a great defender has nothing to do with it – he was being hired by club to be sporting director. So he have power to decide the sporting decision of the club – and responsibility comes with power.

      The fact is, he have many good decisions but also many bad decisions – he take deserved credit for his good decisions for Theo, Tomori, Kalulu, Thiaw, Maignan etc, and of course some credit for our scudetto season, but likewise should also held responsible for failed signing like CDK and Adli, and the fact he chose to not signed people like Botman, Caicedo, Alvarez and Enzo.

  6. Same story with Enzo, caicedo… all missed due to ego fights between 3 man, Pioli Maldini and Moncada. Let’s if they will catch-up future talent with Moncada and Pioli…

    I am not sur

  7. Post seems to blame Maldini only. I don’t believe Maldini set up monopoly over transfers. It’s easy to throw stones at your ex colleagues when they got fired lol

    1. But thats the reason Maldini agreed to join this ownership and rejected offer from Berlusconi-Galliani in the past.Because he want the power to make decision about the team and technical area.Which is not offered by Berlusconi and Galliani in the past (let alone their personal problem) because they both running the club with Barbara too

      1. “I never asked for a ‘Galliani role’ or a CEO with full power. I know what my virtues are, but I know my limitations even better – my area of expertise had to be the sporting side. ” Paolo Maldini 2016.

        Honest question, where do you guys come up with this? You can either let the press decide or you can read the words of the person the press tried to discredit

        1. He asked for full power in the sporting area.
          Galliani was basically running Milan, with Berlusconi being preoccupied with politics and other businesses, so of course he said that he never asked to be the CEO or Galliani’s role.
          He isn’t qualified to be a CEO and no one was ever giving him power as Galliani had under Berlusconi

  8. Again, he signed Maignan, Theo, Tomori, Kalulu, Tonali, Bennacer, Leao, Diaz, Ibra and Giroud. He practically gave us Scudetto starting 11.

    Leonardo found us Kaka and Pato but missed with Paqueta and Piatek.

    You win some, you lose some.

    1. That is the truth they will never say that he Maldini gave AC Milan a scudetto winning team.

      They will never acknowledge him for that, biased minds.
      All they got to say now is he’s not Milan’s greatest player. Men full of hate.
      They are patiently waiting for the season to start so that they will start focusing their criticism on Leao because there is no more Tonali the end the kid will fart 🦍💨 on their faces.

      1. the f*ck does Tonali have to do with Leao? Are you insane? You talk like Tonali was running the whole show by himself

        Remember the Semis against Inter? Tonali was treated like he wasnt even f*cking there time and time again and thats just one match, so many times that season he got overpowered

  9. 2020 milan has Tonali, Benacer, Kessie, The Krunić and Lord Hakan. There is also Paqueta until Jan and Meite after jan.. Where would a unknown 17 yo Caicedo play?
    Also, Brighton paid 28M for him in 2021.

  10. People defend Maldini like it’s their job.
    He wasn’t ready to play for Milan at 17?
    How about signing him and sending him on loan. That’s what big clubs do. Buy talented players on cheap and they send them on loan in the same league or around Europe to develop.
    Juventus in Italy has a lot of players on loan.
    Chelsea and Man City probably control big number of the talents around Europe.
    The player cost 2 million, not 20 million, where you can’t afford to buy him and stash him somewhere else for a couple of years to develop.
    Chaka should have been sent on loan, not kept in that Primavera. Other players too.
    Look at the Kerkez situation.
    They kept him in that low-level Primavera competition instead of right away sending him on loan. Kid got so tired of waiting and asked to leave. Maldini sold him for a million, no buy back , no resale. Went to AZ Alkmaar started right away, a year later got sold to Bournemouth for almost 20 and was balling in the 1st gane in EPL.
    The man worked without a plan. Being a great player doesn’t mean that you can be a competent director, coach or talent evaluator.
    He and Massara lost Kolo Muani, who was free, because they wouldn’t guarantee him a starting time. Milan strikers were 36 year old, Giroud, and 41-year-old Zlatan coming of surgery, and they said nah can’t guarantee starting time.
    Keep defending the man and krep complaining Milan is signing too many players. They are signing many players because that man decimated the squad. Zero depth and almost half of the starter were not good enough to start for Milan.
    Keep mentioning the 3,4 good players he has signed in 4 years, under recommendations on his chief scout BTW, especially Theo and Leao, and a bunch he decided not to sign or failed to sign.
    Best defender 0f all time in 4 years couldn’t sign one CB that you can count on.
    Don’t forget letting players leave for free. It’s insane that people are attacking the current management for cashing in on Tonali but they praised Maldini for losing players for free.
    Even the media in Italy praised Maldini.
    If you wanna know why Italian serie A and the NT are so behind the rest of Europe and can’t qualify for the WC , just look at way Maldini was praised for handling Hakan, Kessie, Donnarumma, Romagnoli. They praised failure. Man lost the club 100 + millions and they made him look like the good guy and the players bad guys, and then they backed him up when he went to the media to cry for investments. You let the money for investments go out the door for nothing dummy.
    Milan can go and sign Mbappe by the end of the mercato, but still the best move this summer was firing Maldini.
    People attack Pioli, bad coach, guess who hired him. Guess who gave him an extention last November. That extention is the only reason Pioli wasn’t fired with Maldini. Don’t forget about Giampaolo as well. That’s another great Maldini decision. But, no. Let’s keep saying what about Theo, Leao, Maignan, Tonali. Let’s forget about the rest of the bums he signed that they can’t get rid of them now even if they tried.

    1. Lol hindsight is perfect. When Milan hired Giampaolo he was a high rated coach at that point in time. Many top teams wanted him. That was a reasonable choice then. It’s only now it doesn’t look like it because it didn’t turn out well. We hired Pioli, it turned out well for the most part as he got us a Scudetto and UCL semi (which btw is what u want from your directors – correcting your mistakes. Mistakes always will happen).
      Giampaolo tried his preferred formation 4312 the entire preseason playing suso who was our best player at the time out of position (btw everyone raved about the formations success in the 2000s and was happy it was coming back). Only to abandon it after the first game undoing all the work up to that point. And then proceeded to show no charisma or personality for such a big club.
      It’s easy to do hindsight. I see ppl here wanting De Zebri. We could get him. He could flop like Giampaolo. He could do well. No one knows. No one knows how any of the missed targets could have turned out.
      We could also be talking about how Milan missed their chance to sign Kalulu for a measly 500k too

      1. Giampaolo , remind me his first match with ACM . His team cannot get closer to do even one shoot on target. Piatek – castilejo infront as CF and SS while suso as AMF . What disaster formation . Hiring giampaolo not only get ACM season ruined but also broken giampaolo career too, after get sacked he never get job from top team anymore. De zerbi are high cost , we must pay brighton 20m euro ,his salary also higher than pioli. Im doubt owner are willing to pay that much for coach that still not winning trophy , pioli are low cost when maldini hire him ( free and low salary)

  11. Maldini and specially Massara are two idiots. Enzo Fernandes, M. Caicedo, Kolo Mouani, Kvaratschelia and Paqueta speaks for their stupidity. Players lost for zero money the same.
    Trash…Ballo Toure, Tătărușanu, Origi, De Ketelaere, Vranckx, Bakayoko and more
    Average…Messias, Saelemaekers, Krunic, Tomori, Kjaer
    Yeah…but good players has arrived…
    R.Leao because Boban want him
    Kalulu ? Moncada…
    Maignan ? Probably the same
    Tonali , a obvious choice and luck because Inter can’t bring him
    Theo Hernandez, Thiaw, Bennacer, Giroud, ok, good choices , good intuition. Overall…more miss than hits

  12. I guess Inter missed out on 60m from Tonali sale. And Arsenal for 70 mil plus a whole other player for Ibra. Man Utd 100m for missing out on signing Bale.etf etc etc. It’s highly convenient to do what ifs and then ignore our very own what ifs for other teams sitting right here in our squad eg Thiaw, Kalulu. Be content with what you have, not what others have and what you’ve missed out on. Hindsight is 20-20. It’s like drooling over your ex, no you’ve made your decisions. Gotta live with it
    We can’t sign EVERY player 🤦‍♂️.

  13. Caicedo may have joined Milan and broken a leg.
    Or become a super star, or find himself a squad player because Bannacer is far better and we had Kessie.
    He may also fail woefully at Chelsea and become another big money flop or he might become an instant hit.
    Nobody knows tomorrow.

  14. he’s hugely overrated transfermarkt vaue is 70m,every club misses out on youngsters that turn out to perform well,Chelsea missed out on mbappe,Inter on baresi

  15. You guys really wanna know exactly How OVERBLOATED the Epl transfers are?

    Find a highlight video of Enzo fernandez.. Then Caicedo… And then.. Find one of Krunic. You will be Shocked I guarantee you. And perhaps.. will find a completely newfound respect for Krunic.

    1. I hope you guys will realize how many miles ahead Kessie Krunic Tonali and Bennacer really is as a player than these overpriced one trick ponies like Enzo and Caicedo.

    2. Check out Enzo vs Adayemi UCL 😂😂😂🤣🤣 still my favorite. Especially when I see ppl here talk about Enzo like he’s a god

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