Brighton's chief executive has aimed at a dig at Chelsea after Moises Caicedo signed for the Blues in a British-record £115 million move.
Caicedo had been a priority target for the west London club since last season ended but Chelsea had a number of bids knocked back by Brighton.
The Ecuador international was always desperate to join Chelsea and had agreed personal terms a long time ago.
Quite the saga ensued when Liverpool tabled an £110 million bid that was accepted on Friday.
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Caicedo's preference was always to join Chelsea, however, and he ended up signing an eight-year contract after rejecting the Reds.
The two-time Champions League winners announced his signing with the caption, "It’s only ever been Chelsea".
Paul Barber, Brighton's CEO and deputy chairman, has confirmed that Caicedo only ever had eyes for Chelsea but appeared to make a thinly veiled dig.
"Liverpool is a fantastic football club, for any footballer to have a chance to play at Anfield, you’d imagine they would be running up the M6 and M62 but it wasn’t to be," he told talkSPORT.
"Moises and his advisors, for whatever reason, decided London was their preferred destination and ultimately Chelsea.
“Obviously in that situation we’re in a slightly difficult position because we negotiated a deal, we spent many days working with Liverpool to get a deal agreed and they couldn’t have done any more.”
Brighton's record sale continues their incredible run of buying players and selling them for profit, following on from the likes of Marc Cucurella, Yves Bissouma, Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Trossard and Robert Sanchez.
The model they've adopted has proven to be an enormous success and there's already belief that striker Evan Ferguson could go for big money.
Barber added: "Moises now goes onto the next stage of his career. He's a fine player, he could become one of the best midfielders in the world, he's got that much potential.
"We've done our bit in the progress of our career. We're onto the next stage, we've got a great squad and we've got players coming in behind him, which is the model."
Caicedo could make his debut on Sunday as Chelsea travel to play West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Topics: Brighton And Hove Albion, Chelsea, Liverpool, Moises Caicedo
Josh Lawless