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With Idrissa Gueye heading to petrodollar-fuelled Paris St Germain and expected in French capital for a medical ahead of signing a four year deal with the Ligue 1 champions of six of the past seven seasons, Everton are in the market for a new holding midfielder.

Manager Marco Silva declared last week that a replacement needed to be found for the Senegalese international before he could be sold so if the 29-year-old does seal his Goodison exit in the coming hours, can a new face be expected to be hot on his heels?

Who?

Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Stanislav Lobotka are the latest names in the frame.

Gbamin, 23, plays for Bundesliga club Mainz but was absent on Saturday as they defeated a youthful Everton side 3-1 in a 60-minute Opel Cup encounter as he is still on holiday after turning out for Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations this summer.

Standing 6ft 1in, like fellow Francophone Gueye he was schooled in French football, in his case at Lens, before switching to the Bundesliga outfit in 2016.

Lobotka, 24, currently plies his trade with Celta Vigo in La Liga.

At just 5ft 7in he's more of a pocket dynamo and a couple of inches shorter than Gueye.

(Image: Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

A Slovakian international, he began his career at hometown club AS Trencin before a loan spell at Jong Ajax (the Amsterdam giants' reserve team in Dutch football's second tier) and then a two-year stint at Danish outfit Nordsjaelland before relocating to Galicia in 2017.

Where?

France Football reckon that the pair are at the top of Everton's list to replace Gueye with Gbamin – who has also been linked with a move to Wolves – having been namechecked by the Sunday Mirror.

(Image: Christian Verheyen/Borussia Moenchengladbach via Getty Images)

What?

Silva himself maintains that a Gueye replacement has to be found – and that the already-signed Fabian Delph is not the man.

The Blues boss also declared that his side might need as many as five new recruits before the transfer window slams shut a week on Friday.

Both these players fit the age profile that director of football Marcel Brands has tried to bring into the club although physically they have considerably different frames with the much larger man Gbamin also able to operate at centre-back – another area Everton could do with cover in following the release of captain Phil Jagielka after 12 years service and the inability so far to bring back last season's loan star Kurt Zouma from Chelsea.