Jun 032015
 

Gerard Deulofeu wants to kick-start his career by returning to Everton .

The Barcelona winger spent the 2013/14 season on loan at Goodison and is understood to be eager to re-join the club.

Deulofeu has endured a campaign to forget on loan at Sevilla and though he will return to the Nou Camp this summer, his long-term future with Barca remains unclear.

The Spanish giants were hoping a season with the Andulacian club, who retained the Europa League last week, would help accelerate the 21-year-old’s development.

But following a bright start, the talented winger struggled to hold down a place in Unai Emery’s side and last played in late April.

Emery, who had a fiery relationship with Deulofeu, said the Spanish under-21 international currently lacks the maturity to make it at the top while his international coach Albert Celades said: “It’ll be very difficult for Deulofeu to succeed at Barcelona.”

Deulofeu is contracted to the Spanish club until the summer of 2017, after penning a new deal before he joined Everton, and has a buy-out clause of around £25m.

Everton take on Cardiff City at Goodison Park. Gerard Deulofeu celebrates after scoring Everton's 1st goal. Picture Jason Roberts. VIEW GALLERY

But after a disappointing season, the winger’s market value is likely to be significantly lower than that.

Barca forward Pedro is expected to leave the club this summer and with the Spanish giants not able to sign players until their transfer ban is lifted in January, letting Deulofeu go would leave them an attacker short.

But by staying at Barcelona, the Catalan would be facing up to a year warming the bench with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all ahead of him in the pecking order.

And so Deulofeu is eager for a return to Everton to work under Roberto Martinez again.

Martinez, though making no secret of his admiration for Deulofeu, recently said he did not think a deal to sign him this summer was “realistic” but sources in Spain have suggested that Barca will listen to offers.

Everton, meanwhile, have cooled their interest in Barca teenager Adama Traore.

The exciting wide-man was being lined up as a loan target for next season but after a disappointing run of form in the second half of the season, where Barcelona B were relegated from Segunda Division, the Blues will look elsewhere.

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 Posted by at 8:35 am

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