Brighton are growing increasingly confident that they will keep Moises Caicedo this summer, talkSPORT understands.
Chelsea are set to make a new bid in the coming days, having already had two offers rejected this summer.
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But the latest bid to arrive will not meet Brighton’s asking price with the Blues set to offer a bid totalling £90million, talkSPORT understands.
However, that bid looks set to be rejected as Brighton are not budging on their valuation of over £100m.
It means that Chelsea are readying themselves for disappointment yet again over the midfielder.
The west London outfit have made the Ecuador international a top priority this summer.
But after chasing him throughout the transfer window, they are no closer to landing their man.
And Brighton are now confident that Caicedo will be going nowhere this summer.
After selling Alexis Mac Allister to Liverpool for a fee of up to £50m, they are doing fine financially – and Caicedo signed a new deal in March.
That is despite Seagulls boss Roberto De Zerbi admitting he would be happy to see the midfielder leave this summer.
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After the final game of the season in the Premier League, the Italian coach said he expected Caicedo and Mac Allister to depart.
“They deserve to change level of team and competition, we have to be happy for them,” he said in May.
“We are Brighton and our policy is to help the young players to progress, we can’t keep our best players.
“That is right, it is our mentality and we have to find more young players.”
Chelsea have other potential targets they could turn to should they fail to land Caicedo.
Mauricio Pochettino is desperate to sign a midfielder after the departures of Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jorginho in January.
Leeds star Tyler Adams, Southampton ace Romeo Lavia and Everton’s Amadou Onana have all been linked.
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