Should Brighton let Moises Caicedo go for less than £100m – and concentrate on bigger picture?

But with the ‘will he, won’t he?’ saga continuing to drag, is now the time when the Albion say enough is enough, reach some form of compromise with Chelsea over the transfer fee, then wipe their mouths and move on?

As I alluded to last week, the player’s body language when receiving his two awards at the delayed players’ dinner last Tuesday spoke volumes.

The already-murky waters were made even more unclear a couple of days later with a press release from the club saying the player would not be sold in the transfer window and would remain an Albion player for the foreseeable future.

Fast forward to the weekend and Caicedo was pulled out of the final pre-season friendly due to a slight hamstring issue, and in the post match interview a clearly perplexed Roberto De Zerbi revealed the uncertainty of the whole situation.

Unfortunately, this is a by product of how far we’ve come as a club in a relatively short space of time. The bottom line is that it’s all about the money and how much the player’s agent can extract from the whole deal.

Will Caicedo better himself as a player by moving to Chelsea? Questionable, but will he and his ‘connections’ benefit financially? Absolutely.

In the 122-year history of the club, players have come and players have gone – granted, only a few as good as Caicedo – but the club didn’t fold when they left, and it won’t implode this time after he’s gone.

It’s one of Tony Bloom’s overriding qualities that his stance over transfer to the perceived bigger clubs is that of legend, but there comes a time when a line has to be drawn.

This is potentially the greatest season in the club’s history, one bad apple in the barrel, however much adulation and affection he previously enjoyed, cannot be allowed to ruin it.

I was buoyed by the fact that Tony was standing firm on the £100m valuation, but there comes a time when even someone as astute as him realises enough is enough.

At this point I, and I’d imagine the majority of the Albion faithful, would accept something around the £90m mark. Then there’s no grey area for RDZ and Saturday at 3pm the next rollercoaster ride begins.

And regular readers will know this time of the year always prompts a Harty prediction… and with or without Moises I still fancy the Albion to finish above both a Harry Kaneless Tottenham and a ‘Transitional’ Chelsea come May.

Enjoy the ride!