Caicedo in and Kepa out at Chelsea as Boehly's spending nears a billion

Chelsea have beaten off competition from Liverpool to clinch the £115 million signing of Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo – as owner Todd Boehly's transfer spend nears the £1 billion mark.

Brighton will receive £100m up front with a further £15m in add-ons with the long-running transfer saga now only lacking official confirmation by the clubs

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 and have now committed to a fee that is likely to at least match the British transfer record they paid to sign Enzo Fernandez from Benfica in January. The 21-year-old Caicedo reportedly underwent a medical at the club on Monday afternoon and will sign a contract until June 2031.

Chelsea retain a strong interest in £50m-rated Southampton midfielder Romeo Lavia, while manager Maurcio 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 £906m 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.

BREAKING: Moisés Caicedo to Chelsea, here we go! Agreement reached and sealed right now — it’s gonna British record transfer fee