Chelsea have made signing a defensive midfielder a priority this summer amid strong suggestions N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic could be on their way out of Stamford Bridge.
The Croatian has been touted as a target for treble-winning outfit Manchester City, whilst the long-serving Frenchman is rumoured to have been offered six times his current salary to make a switch to Saudi Arabia.
The Blues massively underperformed even with the pair in their ranks last season, but they could be about to upgrade with a player wanted by many other elite clubs.
What is the latest on Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Moises Caicedo?
Having missed out on a move for the midfielder in the January window, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims Chelsea are now advancing on a deal to sign Brighton and Hove Albion's Moises Caicedo.
"Chelsea are advancing on Moisés Caicedo deal. Talks progressing on the player side, contract proposal made — personal terms close to being agreed. Deal not done yet — it will take time," the Italian journalist tweeted.
The Ecuador international handed in a public transfer request at the Seagulls at the turn of the year, only to then backtrack and sign a new contract that runs through until 2027, with the option of a further 12 months.
Unsurprisingly given his contract situation and the strong interest from elsewhere, with Arsenal also potentially still interested, Chelsea are said to be aware that it will take a bid of at least £80m to land their top midfield target.
Is Moises Caicedo a good fit for Chelsea?
Caicedo is not being brought to Chelsea to replace the 2022/23 version of Kante, who struggled with injuries last season that restricted him to just six Premier League starts.
Instead, if they are to have any realistic prospect of challenging in the higher reaches of the Premier League in Mauricio Pochettino's first season in charge, they need the same version of Kante that was crowned PFA Player of the Year in 2016-17 – the last season Chelsea won the top flight.
Kante really was a colossus that campaign, having been hailed at the time by legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson as being "by far the best player in the Premier League".
The 32-year-old machine played 35 of Chelsea's 38 league games that season and impressed with his tenacious style in midfield, winning 72% of the 177 tackles he attempted, as per Infogol.
Comparing those figures to the current day Caicedo, the Ecuadorian was successful with 80% of his 116 tackles last season, showing he can more than match peak Kante with that side of his game.
Caicedo also completed 89% of his passes last season, which is identical to that of Kante in 2016/17.
The comparisons do not stop there, either, as both men assisted one goal and scored one goal in those respective campaigns.
As put by Football365 writer Jason Souttar, Caicedo "is a very special player", and one "who could be regarded as the best No. 6 in the world very soon".
Indeed, on the basis of the past 12 months, Caicedo ranks in the top 6% of his positional peers across Europe's top five leagues for pass completion (88.5%), as per FBref, in the top 11% for interceptions (1.61) and top 13% for tackles (2.87) per 90.
For comparison, Kovacic has averaged just 0.97 interceptions and 1.82 tackles per 90 over the past year, though he does edge Caicedo in terms of his pass-completion rate of 86.1%.
The £80m valuation is certainly not cheap, but if Chelsea want to replace the Kante of old, then they really should not look any further than the Seagulls sensation, given the glowing evidence above.