Gremio president Romildo Bolzan has been discussing the future of Everton Soares as the forward continues to be linked with a move away.
The Brazil international has been rumoured to be of interest of a number of sides in the Premier League and the rest of Europe for the last few months.
In particular, Napoli and Everton have both been reportedly linked with the 24-year-old - although the ECHO understood in February the Blues had no plans to make a summer swoop for the forward.
However, Bolzan has been speaking about the Gremio star's future once more and has claimed Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti was a great admirer of the Brazil international in his time at Napoli.
He told Area Napoli [via SportWitness ]: “The truth is that last summer, Everton’s representative told me that he had a proposal from Napoli in his hands, where Ancelotti was there, who was his great admirer. But then from Naples to Gremio, in the end nothing official ever came.
“There had been some contacts, mainly with the player. Ancelotti himself had contacted him.
“However, Everton withdrew even before making a real offer. From what I was told, it was because of some financial issues at that stage. We’ll see if they try to resume the discussion in the future.”
Rumours continue to swirl over the long-term future of the Gremio star.
Everton are still being linked with a potential swoop while some reports claim that Borussia Dortmund have potentially entered the race.
And Bolzan has admitted that Gremio would be willing to negotiate a price lower than the forward's release clause if a suitable offer was made.
“Everton has a €80m termination clause," he continued.
"Clearly, we know that’s very high and we do not intend to clip the boy’s wings, therefore we are willing to negotiate if he expresses his will to move to that particular club.
“To start a negotiation, however, it takes a basic offer. We are also ready to evaluate lower figures than that of the clause, also because, as I said I am aware the Coronavirus crisis will change the market, but you cannot start a negotiation unless you first come forward with an official proposal, and an official proposal for Everton, I repeat, it never came.”
