Everton have not agreed a fee with Hull City for winger Jaden Philogene despite reports claiming the Premier League club had settled on a £16m fee with the Championship outfit.
Ipswich Town remain favourites on Monday with Tigers owner Acun Ilicali telling Hull Live that he expected Philogene to join teammate Jacob Greaves in heading to Portman Road in a combined deal worth in excess of £40m plus add-ons, and that remains the case.
Sources directly involved in the deal have told Hull Live that Everton have not lodged an official bid and as it stands, the only firm offer on the table is from the Tractor Boys and that is the one City are working on completing in the coming days.
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Philogene’s agent, Berto Camacho, as he had done previously at other clubs, posted images of him at Everton’s Finch Farm training complex after holding discussions with chief executive Kevin Thirwell, but suggestions from Merseyside that the Toffees have struck a deal are wide of the mark, and Portman Road is the only likely destination for the duo.
Greaves has completed a medical at Ipswich and that deal is understood to be broadly agreed pending the outcome of talks with his Tigers teammate.
City are resigned to losing Philogene less than a year after he arrived from Aston Villa in a deal worth around £5m, with the 22-year-old netting 12 goals and clocking up six assists in his first campaign at the MKM Stadium, form which also saw him called up to the England Under-21 squad by Lee Carsley, the former Toffees ace.
“As I always said, I think we have a very good team and I mentioned something very clearly that unless they don’t want to go, so both they want to go to the Premier League, which I understand,” owner Acun Ilicali told Hull Live. “I’m sure that the fans also understand so very probably they’re going to be in the Premier League next year and the deal can be finished in a few days if nothing unexpected happens.
“Of course, I’m not happy, I’m sad. First of all, both of them are very good boys and I like them a lot, especially Greaves. He has been here since I came, and I have a special relationship with him, but he mentioned to me that he wants to go to the Premier League.
“That’s what, of course, all of the players (not just Hull City) want, so when he says something like that, my only concern will be his happiness, so I’m sad, but of course, for the club, we will see if it is going to be positive or negative, because now, of course, new players will come.”
City, meanwhile, are edging ever-closer to completing deals for a striker and right-back, with a growing desire the pair will be signed and sealed this week ahead of the Tigers’ first outing of the summer in Turkey on Saturday.