Paul Clement has dropped a heavy hint that Gylfi Sigurdsson will soon be leaving Swansea City – but only if the price is right.
The Swans head coach has confirmed there has been significant interest in the Icelandic midfielder, who is reported to have been valued at £50m by the club.
Clement has offered no guarantees that arguably the most important player in his squad will be under his charge for the coming season and his language suggests he is preparing for Everton to follow up their long-term interest by lodging a firm bid.
Speaking to the club’s official website, Clement said: “Gylfi has been an excellent player here.
“He has three years on his contract and if any business is going to be done, it will be done on the terms we want.
“The club recognised his contribution by giving him an extended contract last season. He was happy to stay on here.
“At the moment he is a Swansea player and we have to carry on looking at it that way.”
Clement says Sigurdsson is working hard having returned to training last week and is preparing as normal for the start of the new Premier League season.
The Swans fly out to America for a pre-season tour on Thursday and despite the transfer talk, Sigurdsson will be on the plane.
“He is training hard and straightaway he is at the top of all the statistics physically.
“I am planning for him to be here, but there is clearly some very strong interest in him. We will have to see what happens.”
Sigurdsson, who was named the club’s player of the year for the second successive campaign last season, has not angled for a move away from the Liberty Stadium.
He is understood to be open to a switch to Everton, but also optimistic that other bigger clubs might join the race. The Swans are already understood to have a rejected a bid of £40m from Leicester City, but if a Champions League club enters the bidding then the price will rise further towards the club’s valuation.
The 27-year-old scored nine league goals in the last campaign and had 13 assists in a team which spent the entire season battling against relegation.
Sigurdsson has three years left on his contract having signed a new deal last August.
He has scored 30 goals in 112 games since the Swans signed him from Tottenham for £6.8m (€7.6m) in July 2014.
Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins revealed in February that Sigurdsson was the subject of “substantial offers” during the last transfer window, with interest understood to have come from both home and abroad.
Sigurdsson said at the club’s end-of-season awards in May that he was happy at Swansea and would only leave the Liberty Stadium if the club wanted to sell him.
Everton have spent big in the summer transfer window so far with Jordan Pickford, Davy Klaassen, Michael Keane, Henry Onyekuru, Nathangelo Markelo and Sandro Ramirez joining their former player Wayne Rooney at Goodison Park.
The Toffees’ coffers are also set to be swelled by the sale of striker Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United for an initial £75m (€84.7m).
Leicester have also been strongly linked with Sigurdsson, particularly as Riyad Mahrez’s future has been in doubt after the Algeria international expressed his desire to leave the King Power Stadium.
Swansea midfielder Jack Cork, meanwhile, is on the verge of a £10m move to Burnley, a club where he has had two previous loan spells.
Cork, 28, has played 80 league games for Swansea since joining from Southampton in a £3m deal in January 2015.
But he lost his first-team place as Swansea secured their top-flight survival under Clement.
And Cork’s game time could become even more limited following the £11m signing of Las Palmas midfielder Roque Mesa.