Chelsea have been warned that Napoli will not consider selling defender Kalidou Koulibaly to them this summer unless a suitable replacement is found by the Italian club.
Chelsea coach Antonio Conte tried to sign the 25-year-old last summer as he sought to strengthen his defensive options ahead of the start of the current campaign.
But despite a mammoth bid of around £58million, Napoli rejected Chelsea's advances before tying Koulibaly down to a new long-term contract which will keep him at the Serie A side until 2021.
Despite the new deal, Koulibaly said in March it would make him "happy" to play in England while his agent recently refused to say for certain whether the centre-back will definitely stay at Napoli past this summer.
And club president Aurelio De Laurentiis has now suggested he would be open to selling Koulibaly - but only if Napoli can find a worthy replacement.
"Chelsea had offered €55m (£47m), but I told Conte that I could not give him up without first having a worthy substitute," he told beIN Sports.
"[I will not sell him] unless [Napoli manager Maurizio] Sarri tells me: ‘I have Tom, Dick and Harry who are reliable: you give up who you want.’"
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De Laurentiis' comments will also be a warning to Everton who, like Chelsea, tried to sign Koulibaly last summer but saw a big-money offer rejected by Napoli.
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri said in November: "We tried to buy Koulibaly and they wanted £60m.
"It’s monopoly money, it doesn’t mean anything."
