BRIGHTON have identified Lille teenager Carlos Baleba as an unlikely cut-price replacement for £115million Moises Caicedo.
Roberto De Zerbi wants to bring in another defensive midfield player to plug the gap created by Caicedo’s British record move to Chelsea.
Brighton want Carlos Baleba as a replacement for Moises CaicedoGetty
GettyCaicedo has completed his move to Chelsea for a British record fee[/caption]
And the club’s talent spotters have recommended 19-year-old Baleba as the man to step into the breach.
The Cameroon youth international has only played 20 games for Lille but is already rated as one of the hottest young prospects in French football.
Lille value the box-to-box youngster at £26million but Brighton believe that they can get him for around £20million.
But they cannot afford to hang around for too long because news of their interest has alerted a number of other teams to Baleba’s potential.
And one of those clubs who could look to hijack the deal are Liverpool, who agreed to pay Brighton £110million for Caicedo before the player rejected the move to Anfield.
But Brighton are more likely to offer Baleba regular Premier League football and believe their track record of turning unknown players into international stars will count in their favour.
The Seagulls have also been linked with a move for Red Bull Salzburg star Lucas Gourna-Douath.
Gourna-Douath, 20, has been previously dubbed the ‘new Paul Pogba’ mainly thanks to his talent and shared history with the former Manchester United star.
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The Frenchman spent part of his youth training with Torcy, the same Parisian outfit that Pogba played for before entering more elite academies.
He later joined St Etienne before signing for Salzburg for £13m, where he has made 36 appearances.
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