Idrissa Gueye’s protracted return to Everton is finally heading towards conclusion.
The Blues have been in negotiations over the Senegal international with Paris Saint-Germain for over a fortnight after while Frank Lampard had initially wanted Gueye to be part of his squad ahead of the opening game of the season against his previous employers Chelsea, they have suffered back-to-back defeats without him.
Last week, Everton officials were becoming increasingly frustrated over hold-ups after offering the player what they considered to be a very attractive offer but the ECHO understands that those problems have now been ironed out and the club are increasingly hopeful that a deal will be done.
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Gueye, who turns 33 next month, has been training away from the main squad for a number of days now and instead has been placed alongside a group of players who the club want to sell including Layvin Kurzawa, Julian Draxler, Mauro Icardi and Thilo Kehrer – who today completed his transfer to West Ham United.
Sources in Paris had previously claimed that the defensive midfielder had yet to officially declare that he wanted to depart PSG but he has now accepted that it is time for him to leave and has left the deal in the hands of the two clubs to tie up the remaining loose ends.
Lampard admitted during Everton’s US tour that his team needed to find a ‘number six’ type player and Gueye was an effective performer in that role for Everton between 2016-19, joining for £7.1million from Aston Villa before making a lucrative £30million switch to petrodollar-fuelled PSG.
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