Everton boss Marco Silva has hinted the club are currently working on making Andre Gomes’ loan move from Barcelona permanent.
The Merseyside club paid a season-long loan fee of €2.5m to land the Portuguese international but do not exercise an option to sign the midfielder permanently.
The release clause of Gomes at the Camp Nou is said to be €100m but it would be extremely likely the club would sell at a significantly lower value.
“He's enjoyed his first two months but let's see what we can do,” Silva told a news conference on Friday morning.
“We are working on it, I don't know if I have answer in one week or two weeks.
“It is not something that it is in our hands. The best scenario to look at is – it is not just in our hands as a club, not just in the hands of Andre, there is a third party as well.
“Barcelona are included, let's see when we can talk about the situation.”
Gomes joined Barca from Valencia in 2016 in a deal worth up to €55m but failed to settle at the Catalan giants.