Everton boss Frank Lampard steps in to push Idrissa Gueye as move flounders
Frank Lampard has personally called Idrissa Gueye to try to get him to complete his move to Everton, French sources have told the Liverpool Echo.
A return to Goodison Park for the Senegal international has been on the cards for around a fortnight now but has still yet to be completed, despite Amadou Onana and Conor Coady arriving in the mean time, although it is still supposed to be happening.
The Toffees boss is getting increasingly frustrated with the delay and reportedly phoned the midfielder to convince him to come.
The club are also confused about the hold up, with the latest report saying: “The ECHO understands that Everton have made Gueye what they consider to be a very attractive offer and Blues officials are becoming increasingly perplexed by the hold-ups that have prevented the deal from getting over the line”.
Gueye is one of a group of players the French champions are looking to move on this summer and has been training away from the first team, but is running out of time to be available for the game against Aston Villa on Saturday (13 August) if he is to move.
Ominous
When this move first came up it seemed to make perfect sense in the circumstances for all parties, so there was an assumption that it would be sewn up with relatively little fuss.
The club have shown an ability to get a deal done in quick time with both Dwight McNeil and Coady’s moves getting through fast.
Onana’s move seemed like it would be the difficult one over the last couple of weeks, considering the big money involved and the breakdown in talks that had hit his proposed move to West Ham previously.
But the youngster is in the building now so fans will be getting increasingly anxious that the former Toffee isn’t going to join him after all after this much of a delay.
Anything that takes some time appears to have issues involved from the outside, but if it is accurate that both the manager and the club are getting confused and frustrated that isn’t a great sign.
The 32-year-old doesn’t seem to have a role in Paris any more so surely he is going to be on the move before the window closes.
The suggestion that it is severance pay that is the sticking point [i News] presumably puts the ball in PSG’s court as much as Gueye’s, but Everton are missing out either way if it prevents the veteran from being available for Villa, or potentially at all.