Everton appear to have moved a step closer to securing the signature of Gylfi Sigurdsson after the Icelandic midfielder pulled out of Swansea's pre-season game against Birmingham on Saturday.
Sigurdsson has been strongly linked with a move to Goodison Park, but Swansea are refusing to let him leave on the cheap and have turned down a £45million offer from the Merseyside club.
The move has now taken another twist after the talented midfielder was left out of Swansea City's matchday squad for the game against Birmingham because of ongoing transfer speculation.
According to the Liverpool Echo , Sigurdsson wants to come to Goodison Park, but the American owners of his current employers Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien are determined to hold out for their £50million valuation of the player.
After captaining Swansea in their first friendly match of the summer at Barnet on July 12, Sigurdsson shocked club chiefs by refusing to board their flight to Philadelphia just hours before it took off because he did not feel in the right frame of mind due to the uncertainty over his future.
After three games in the USA against Philadelphia Union, Richmond Kickers and North Carolina, the Swans returned home this week and manager Paul Clement tried to reintegrate the 27-year-old back into his first team squad.
Sigurdsson took part in training sessions with his team-mates but a Swansea club statement released on their website confirmed that he will not be part of the team for the trip to St Andrew’s to face Harry Redknapp’s Championship side.
It read: “Gylfi Sigurdsson, however, will not feature as it was agreed between the club and player that he would sit this game out due to the current transfer speculation surrounding him.”
With no end in sight over the impasse over the fee, Everton manager Ronald Koeman – who along with director of football Steve Walsh is a long-time admirer of Sigurdsson – declared in his pre-match Press Conference for the first leg against Ruzomberok that the matter was now in the hands of the board.