Toffees confident of closing Baines deal

Everton are confident they will make progress in their chase for Wigan defender Leighton Baines in the next few days

Talks have been ongoing over the weekend, and the Merseysiders are edging closer to completing a near-£6million deal for the England Under-21 full-back.

There is competition from Newcastle, but the Toffees believe that the player's long-term support of the club will swing the deal their way.

Having sold James Beattie to Sheffield United for £4million, the club are looking to further add to their squad. But there has been no confirmation from the club of a move for Porto's Argentinian midfielder Luis Gonzalez.

The 26 year-old, skipper of the Portuguese champions and a member of the Argentina side in the last World Cup and recent Copa America, was linked with Everton at the weekend.

Everton have also confirmed today that young striker James Vaughan will not be back in action before November.

Vaughan suffered a dislocated shoulder during the pre-season friendly with Preston at Deepdale last month, and had an immediate operation.

In the past week he has been seen by a specialist to review the progress made, and has been told that it will be four months before he can consider playing again.

Everton physio Mick Rathbone told evertonTV: "James dislocated his shoulder which is a nasty injury in a professional sportsman and it always needs repairing.

"He has been to the specialist again and things are going tremendously well but we are looking at an estimated time of four months, certainly no less."