Everton want to keep Andre Gomes and Kurt Zouma at Goodison Park.
Everton boss Marco Silva has told The Echo that the club has Plan-B options in the event that they cannot keep Kurt Zouma and Andre Gomes on Merseyside.
Zouma and Gomes, on loan from Chelsea and Barcelona respectively, were revelations for Everton this past season.
But it remains to be seen if Silva and Director of Football Marcel Brands can thrash out permanent deals for the duo.
Zouma is valued at around £30 million [The Sun], while The Sun also reported earlier this week that the Portuguese midfielder could land Barcelona around £35 million.
“Even if I would like to be able to say ‘Zouma and Andre’ and nobody else – and I know our fans would like to hear that coming from me and us as a club – of course when you plan something you cannot just plan with one,” Silva told The Echo on Friday.
“We have to have A, B, C, D or whatever. Even if you know the A will Andre and Zouma and that they will be the best for us.”
Toffees fans won’t want to entertain the idea of life without either player right now, but this is obviously the smart strategy by Everton.
There is a chance that Silva won’t be welcoming either star back to Merseyside. Chelsea want Zouma to be included in their pre-season preparations, while Gomes is heavily linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur.
Losing both indefinitely would be a big blow, but Brands has proven himself a shrewd operator in the transfer market and adequate replacements should be expected in the event that they leave.
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