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Fabian Delph has not been signed as a replacement for the in-demand Idrissa Gueye.

But Gueye's Goodison future remains in doubt and talks are planned with the midfielder as Paris Saint Germain continue to circle.

Marco Silva has confirmed that should the Blues lose the all-action Gueye then they would focus on signing a player to fill the void.

However Delph, who joined Everton from Manchester City on Monday in a deal worth an initial £8.5m, has not been recruited as a substitute for Gueye.

Silva says the 29-year-old will offer “different solutions” and though Delph can play in defensive midfield he has not been brought to the club in anticipation that Gueye will leave.

“I will answer direct to this question,” he told the ECHO.

“They are two completely different players. Gana plays in one role, Fabian can do the role of Gana but he doesn't come to our squad to replace Gana.

“Gana is still our player and, of course, if we lose Gana then we have to sign a player to replace him because you are talking about one player playing almost all of the games in our squad.

“If it will happen then we have to replace him, it is not because we have signed Fabian Delph.”

Silva explained: “For me he is a box-to-box player and Fabian performs better when he is a box-to-box player.

“Of course, he can play as one of the two midfielders with an offensive midfield player, the role we are giving to Gylfi and one that Bernard and Tom can also play there and even Andre because he did in Valencia, and so Fabian can play in that role in our 4-2-3-1 formation we played last season.

“He can also play as an offensive midfielder and can give us more opportunities than we had last season.

“When I said he can bring different solutions it is to play a 4-3-3 with two offensive midfielders, plus one more positional midfielder.

“But the position I can see him performing well is as a box-to-box midfielder player because he has this capacity to do that.”

Everton's summer transfer strategy centres around investing in players aged between 20-25/6 but the club saw the chance to snap up the experienced Delph as too good to miss.

“We took that decision before the end of the season,” Silva said.

(Image: Getty)

“It was one player we decided would be a target and I can tell you that around March, April we started to talk about this possibility and how it would be important and a good solution for us.”

Silva, meanwhile, says he will stress the pivotal role Gueye plays in the team when he talks to the midfielder after the Africa Cup of Nations final, which takes place on Friday.

“I have to talk with him and show him how he is an important player for us,” Silva said.

“To be honest, even if it was a fantastic opportunity for him, the behaviour of Gana after that period was very, very good and he lost a 'dream'.

“He always gives 100% and his best. He said to me in that period that he had that dream but for us as a club it was really tough to take to lose a player like him.

“I think we took the right decision and after that Gana proved that with his best season at Everton, in my opinion.

“Let's see what the market will say again about Idrissa and we are here to take the best decisions for us as a football club.”