Brighton have rejected a second, increased offer from Chelsea for midfielder Moises Caicedo worth £80m.
Last week the Seagulls snubbed a £70m offer from Chelsea for a player they value in the region of £100m.
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One source had told Sky Sports News that Brighton value Caicedo, who was signed from Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle for £4.5m in 2021, in the same bracket as Arsenal's record-signing Declan Rice and will look to get in the region of £100m for him.
It is thought Chelsea were getting encouragement that the 21-year-old would join them if a deal can be agreed between the clubs, with personal terms not expected to be a problem.
Sky Sports News understands there are no active talks between the clubs currently.
Chelsea are now deciding whether to go back in with an improved offer or turn their attention to other targets.
Sky Sports News has been told Brighton are committed to keeping the player and that they do not want to sell.
Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi has made it clear he wants Caicedo to stay.
Analysis: Has Fernandez fee made Caicedo deal more expensive?
European football expert Kevin Hatchard on Sky Sports News:
"The Enzo Fernandez situation is interesting here. If you're Brighton, you look at what Chelsea did with Enzo and say, 'Hang on, you paid a fortune for him and he hadn't had an established track record in European football'.
"Yes, he was a very good, exceptional player and played very well in the Champions League for Benfica but it was a pretty small sample size. So they'll probably say, 'If you were prepared to pay that, you should pay it for Caicedo'."
Analysis: From tearful teen to in-demand star
In the wake of his country's World Cup exit last year, when other players were jetting off to high-end holiday resorts, Moises Caicedo was back in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, playing in a local tournament on the same dusty pitch he used as a boy.
In footage which went viral in the country, Caicedo, a rising star in the Premier League who had just become Ecuador's youngest scorer at a World Cup, can be seen finding the net again, only this time as a ringer for Caicedos FC, a team made up of extended family members.
His goal, slotted in at the near post in ramshackle surroundings, helped Caicedos FC win the tournament and was celebrated with a leap, a fist pump, and a gesture of recognition to the few hundred spectators sitting or leaning on fences around the pitch.
"This is Moises," Miguel Angel Ramirez, Caicedo's former coach at his boyhood club Independiente del Valle, tells Sky Sports with a smile. "Going back to his village, to his family, his friends, playing football, helping everyone there. He doesn't forget his people..."
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