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Everton could walk away from talks over signing Kurt Zouma in the coming days and pursue other targets.

The Blues want to sign the Chelsea defender on a permanent deal after he spent last season on loan but the Stamford Bridge club's transfer ban is complicating matters.

Everton have until 5pm on August 8 to complete their transfer business although Silva is keen to have his full squad in place by the end of this month.

Zouma has returned to the London outfit for pre-season training and this week travelled to Japan ahead of games with Kawasaki Frontale and Barcelona.

New Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has also spoken of his desire to see Zouma stay at the club for the coming season.

Everton need to strengthen at centre-half and when asked if there has to be a cut off point in the pursuit of Zouma, Marco Silva said: “You are right, you are right.

“Of course, one of the most important things for me, since we finished the season, is to keep our level.

(Image: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

“It is very, very good for us that we could do that with Andre and our most important players until now, because it was not just Andre and Kurt.

“The most important players in our squad are still here at our club, the 15 or 16 players who played the most are still here until this moment, other than Kurt.

“Let's see what we can do in this situation.”

Zouma was a deadline day arrival last August but Silva says Everton are not in a position to allow their interest to drag on that long this time.

“It is not an easy situation, we are working on the other solutions because we cannot wait until the last week or the last day to take one player,” he said.

“We will see in the next days and next week to see if it will be possible or not, if not we have to go to the other solutions I have in my mind.”