Everton are set to announce the signing of Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson for a fee believed to be about £45m.
The 27-year old passed a medical at the club earlier on Wednesday, manager Ronald Koeman told a news conference.The Iceland international scored nine goals and made 13 assists last season to help the Swans avoid relegation.
Sigurdsson will be a record signing for Everton, who paid £31.8m to Chelsea for striker Romelu Lukaku in 2014.
Swansea set an asking price of £50m for Sigurdsson in July after rejecting an offer worth about £40m from Leicester.
The Welsh club then turned down a similar bid from the Toffees, who had been interested in signing the Iceland playmaker for more than a year.
Spurs will reportedly benefit from a 10% sell-on clause, having sold Sigurdsson to Swansea in the deal which took Wales full-back Ben Davies and goalkeeper Michel Vorm to White Hart Lane.
Sigurdsson in numbers
8 - Provided more assists last season from dead ball situations than any other player in the Premier League
34 - With 34 goals he is Swansea's top scorer in the Premier League
29 - With 29 assists he is Swansea's most prolific creator of goals in the Premier League
433 - Covered more distance (kilometres) in the Premier League than any other player last season
A long chase
Sigurdsson said in May he was "not trying to leave" the Swans, having signed a new contract last year to become the club's highest paid player.The Icelandic midfielder missed the Swans' US tour and friendly with Birmingham "due to the current transfer speculation surrounding him".
He scored 30 goals for Swansea since rejoining them in 2014 after a two-year spell at Tottenham.
Everton have enjoyed a productive transfer window, re-signing Wayne Rooney from Manchester United and spending a potential £30m each on centre-back Michael Keane and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
They have also signed midfielder Davy Klaassen for £23.6m and striker Sandro Ramirez for £5.2m.
However, striker Lukaku joined Manchester United for £75m and Toffees boss Ronald Koeman has indicated that he expects Ross Barkley to leave the club.
Analysis
Former Everton and Scotland winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 liveI think he's a fabulous player. Yes it's a stupid amount of money, but if he goes and gets you into the Champions League, well that will not seem like a daft amount of money.
There's a few of us out there who think this guy's extra special and can give you that one thing, that one piece of class that you need to make yourself different from the rest.
Sigurdsson gets a game wherever he goes and looks perfectly good in any team you put him in, he's a fabulous player and I think he single-handedly kept his club up last season.
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