According to Everton boss Marco Silva, Barcelona were not interested in selling midfielder Andre Gomes on a permanent basis, the Liverpool Echo report.
After recovering from an injury that he sustained with his parent club, Gomes has since started in the Toffees’ last three Premier League fixtures, impressing boss Silva in the home wins against Crystal Palace and Brighton.
The 25-year-old, who has turned out 60 times for Barcelona, eventually completed a season-long loan move to Goodison Park on deadline day, along with defender Yerry Mina, however, Everton originally wanted to sign the Portuguese international permanently earlier in the summer.
Talking ahead of the trip to Chelsea on Sunday, Silva revealed Gomes’ situation over the summer, admitting Chelsea had the same stance over defender Kurt Zouma.
If we can buy them in the beginning it is better but you know how the market is.
And in that moment their clubs did not want to sell. Barcelona didn’t even want to listen about selling Andre and Zouma was the same.
It was still a good opportunity for us to take them on loan. The market is the market and we have to be aware about everything and all the solutions we can make in our squad.
Silva then went on to heap praise on both Gomes and Zouma, with the pair beginning to consistently perform for the Toffees.
We are really happy with Andre and Zouma because they can improve and help our squad but also how they have behaved and what good professionals they are.
