Yeah, I see your point. We don't care about Brighton's situation, but I'm not sure any clubs really do.
Our timing was dictated by El Neny's injury. If he wasn't out for what looks like the rest of the season, I don't think we'd have bid for Caicedo. Or any CM until the summer.
It is a vivid example of how fluid valuation is. Brighton would be unable to replace him adequately. Bloom has a large personal fortune and, even separate from him, Brighton have made huge profits in the transfer market in recent years. They don't need the money and they have a lot to play for this season. On the other hand, Arsenal have a lot of money and could really do with a player who is acclimatised to the PL and is comfortable playing as both a 6 and 8 for our title challenge. It was like a perfect storm for the price to shoot up.
You can see why he is worth £70m to Arsenal and is worth even more to Brighton in these particular circumstances. But in the summer, when these are no longer key factors, I think his value will fall back down to Chelsea's bid of £55m.
Salty online Arsenal fans who think that will teach Brighton some sort of lesson are mistaken. Having Caicedo for the second half of the season will be worth far more than £15m to Brighton.