Chelsea have beaten off competition from Liverpool to clinch the £115 million signing of Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo – and will now turn their attention to wrapping up a deal for Southampton's Romeo Lavia.
Brighton will receive £100 million up front with a further £15 million in add-ons. The transfer was officially confirmed by the clubs on Monday night.
Liverpool appeared to move ahead of Chelsea in the race to sign the Ecuador international at the weekend when they agreed a fee with the Seagulls, however the player only wanted to move to Stamford Bridge.
The Blues have been chasing Caicedo all summer. The 21-year-old underwent a medical at the club's Cobham training base on Monday afternoon and signed a contract until June 2031.
"I didn't have to think twice when Chelsea called me, I just knew I wanted to sign for the club," Caicedo said.
"It's a dream come true to be here and I can't wait to get started with the team."
Chelsea will now focus on completing a deal for £50 million-rated Saints midfielder Lavia, while manager Mauricio Pochettino has said he wants a new forward to replace Christopher Nkunku, who is likely to be out for several months with a knee injury sustained in pre-season.
The signing of Caicedo will take the club's transfer spend to £906 million on 27 players across three windows since being acquired by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, and with more new recruits seemingly on the way, there's every chance that could top a billion by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, one player on his way out of Stamford Bridge is goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has agreed a season-long loan move to Real Madrid.
The 28-year-old Spain international, who joined the Blues in a £71.6 million switch from Athletic Bilbao in August 2018, has been signed to replace Thibaut Courtois, who has been ruled out with a long-term knee injury.
Elsewhere, West Ham announced the capture of England midfielder James Ward-Prowse from Southampton on Monday in a deal worth a reported £30 million. The 28-year-old set-piece specialist will help fill the gap left by Declan Rice's move to Arsenal.
The Hammers, meanwhile, are braced for another bid from Manchester City for Lucas Paqueta. City have already seen one bid turned down but are said to be readying a second offer.
Should the Brazil international leave the London Stadium this summer, manager David Moyes is understood to be eager to replace him with Ajax's Ghana international Mohammed Kudus. The 23-year-old Kudus, who shone at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has been on the radar of a number of Premier League clubs this summer, including Brighton, Arsenal and Chelsea.
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
