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Everton have been working for weeks with Leeds United on an agreement to sign Wilfried Gnonto in the January transfer window.

That’s according to journalist Rudy Galetti, who says they are ‘still working’ on an agreement for the Italian after the summer saga around him.

Everton chased Gnonto throughout the summer transfer window as they looked to strengthen their squad but were unable to strike an agreement with Leeds, who held out for a price that Everton simply could not afford.

The forward ended up staying at Elland Road and managed to mend bridges after going on strike to try and secure his move away. He’s featured in 30% of minutes this season.

Everton’s interest has not gone away, though, and they are ‘still working’ to get the forward to Goodison Park at some point according to Galetti.

He reports that they have always appreciated the Italian and ‘consider him a main target’ to strengthen their attack this month. As a result, talks have been in progress with Leeds for weeks to try and find an agreement.

Whether that is possible is dubious, though. Everton don’t have the funds for a permanent deal this month and director of football Kevin Thelwell has publicly stated it is likely to be a quiet month.

A loan deal would make sense, but Premier League rules would prevent that. They state that clubs can only register two loan players maximum and under no circumstances can they sign more than one from the same club.

With Jack Harrison already on loan from Leeds and Arnaut Danjuma also on loan from Villarreal, that would rule out a loan deal for Gnonto on two fronts.

There are other routes, of course, with perhaps Everton taking Gnonto now and paying in future, as they agreed with Udinese for striker Beto in the summer.

That would take complicated negotiating with Leeds, though, and given the relationship between the two clubs isn’t all that great, that seems unlikely.

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