Sean Dyche has revealed that Kevin Thelwell has held talks with Tottenham Hotspur in a bid to renegotiate the terms of Dele’s transfer.

Blues boss Dyche revealed back in September that his club were considering approaching Tottenham to discuss the terms of the deal agreed in January 2022 once the player was close to a return to action. Dele is in the final year of his Blues contract, with the terms of his move to Goodison Park stipulating that Everton must pay £10million to the North London club when he has made 20 appearances. He has so far made 13.

And although Dyche admitted on Thursday afternoon that the midfielder still has some way to go before returning to full fitness, he did reveal that the former MK Dons man is back on the grass with the club’s medical team after suffering a setback in his rehabilitation following hip surgery, which prematurely ended a loan spell at Besiktas last season.

Asked if the club had managed to negotiate a deal with Spurs, Dyche replied: “No, not yet. Kev has had a couple of phone calls just lightly in the background: ‘Look, where do you see it?’ But nothing that has changed at the moment.”

Providing the latest on the midfielder, Dyche said: “I must make it clear he is on the grass but still a long way from being fit, he is not training with us; he is with the sports science; he is just really getting back to where he was, which was drastically unfortunate when the rehab goes wrong off an operation it is almost more time than the original moment.

“But the specialists advised to leave it alone and just let it heal naturally, he is in a good place. He is back on the grass with the sports science, so he is still quite away yet.”

Asked if he was hopeful that a deal could be concluded so the 27-year-old could become a member of his squad, Dyche responded: “We will see because it is something that was done before my time here.

“I can answer to what I have done and tried to do, but I can’t answer things that were previous to me. They are relationships that were previous to me, and the situation was previous to me. So Kev will take that up more than me.”