Swansea City manager anxious for Gylfi Sigurdsson transfer to be completed

Everton’s Premier League opener against Stoke City is now 9 days away. For as much work as Ronald Koeman and company have done in the transfer market, there are still three massive holes in the makeup of the Blues’ squad - including two starters.

A CB/LB hybrid is required, and so too is a big time target man. Even more than that, though, a creative player is needed to tie everything together. Gylfi Sigurdsson has been Everton’s most prominent target for months. Will he join? Won’t he? If not him, who?

If recent reports are to be believed, it looks like the Sigurdsson transfer may be on its way to some sort of closure. At the very least, Swansea City are equally anxious to have the matter settled, particularly manager Paul Clement:

“Our transfers are on hold pending the situation with Gylfi.

If the situation is that he moves on, the funds will be available to reinvest and strengthen our squad.

We have targets identified, but not just one, we have to have multiple targets.

Gylfi continues to be a Swansea City player.

He is training very hard with the rest of the group and his dedication is second to none. He has even stayed out after training today to do extra in front of goal.

He will not feature for us against Sampdoria on Saturday. I believe the talks are still going on and hopefully we will get some news in the next couple of days.”

Everton will be hopeful that a deal can be closed before their final friendly of the preseason, against Sevilla at Goodison Park on August 6. Sigurdsson has been faithfully training ahead of any potential move, so it’s not out of the question that he could feature in that match, and even start against Stoke.

Either way, it’s time for both clubs involved in this exchange to put up or shut up. If Swansea don’t want to take Everton’s money - a more than fair offer - the Blues would do well to go elsewhere for attacking help.