Roberto De Zerbi has proposed a swap deal involving in order to break the deadlock over ’s potential transfer to .
The Blues have identified the Eduador international as their No.1 midfield target this summer following the departures of , Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante.
Chelsea have already seen a bid of around £70million dismissed out of hand by the Seagulls who rejected a similar offer from Arsenal back in January.
The south coast club believe Caicedo should command a fee in the region of £100million given Arsenal eventually signed Declan Rice earlier this month for a British record sum.
Relations between both clubs have not been helped by Brighton’s own pursuit of Levi Colwill who spent last season on loan at Brighton.
The England international appears to have little desire to return to Chelsea in a back-up role to the likes of Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah.
And, in an effort to ensure both clubs end up with something approaching a positive outcome, De Zerbi believes a player exchange could be a solution.
He said: ‘There are two questions. Not only about Caicedo, also about Colwill, and maybe it can be [a swap].
‘I would like to play with Caicedo and Colwill together but at the moment I can only speak about Caicedo as Colwill is not one of my players.’
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