Marco Silva has vowed Everton will do everything to sign Andre Gomes.
Gomes continues to make a strong impression for the Blues during a season-long loan from Barcelona but there is currently no option to make the deal permanent.
The Spanish champions aim to recoup their £29 million outlay on the midfielder in 2016 but Everton were only able to negotiate a £2m loan fee in the summer.
However Silva insists that Goodison Park chiefs have made tying down Gomes’ future a priority with the Portugal international understood to be against a return to the Nou Camp.
He said: “As you know we don’t have the option – that deal doesn’t exist at the moment. There are three parts to any deal: us, Andre and Barcelona.
“We have to go step by step and at the right moment. Our owner and our board will find the right moment to try to do something and will do everything we can to achieve it.
“But it is not just one decision that is in our hands. If it was we would possibly move faster because it is impossible to be more happy with Andre than we are at the moment.
“Everything he is doing – his performances, how he is enjoying it, how he has settled in our dressing room as a man and as a professional – is quality.
“Everything we can do to sign a quality player like him it would be really important for us.”