Everton boss Frank Lampard says the club want Anthony Gordon to stay, but added he would be naive to offer any assurances over the forward’s future.
The 21-year-old made his Everton debut in January 2020 and signed a five-year contract eight months later.
“Anthony Gordon is an Everton player,” said Lampard. “And that’s enough for me.”
“I don’t want to talk about hypotheticals. He has got a huge value to the team and to me. We are not looking at it as ‘where can we go with this deal?’
“We know his value but he’s a big player for me and the team. You can’t ask me to assure anything, it’ll be naive of me to assure anything,” he said.
“I can’t assure I’ll be here by the end of the window.”
Gordon has made 51 Premier League appearances for Everton and scored four goals during his time in the senior team.
The England Under-21 player has had to lead the Everton attack in the first two games of the new season following the injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, with Richarlison having joined Tottenham this summer.
Everton host newly-promoted Nottingham Forest at home in the Premier League on Saturday.
Lampard, whose side host newly promoted Nottingham Forest on Saturday also gave an update on Dele Alli.
The 26-year-old midfielder has made 13 appearances but started only once since joining from Tottenham on a two-and-a-half-year contract in January. Everton have held talks with Besiktas about a potential loan move to this Turkish side.
While Lampard said the deal would have to be right “for everybody”, he also said he understood why there was interest in the potential move.
“The moment Dele’s name comes up in the media, people queue up to have an opinion and it’s often negative,” said Lampard.
“I don’t think that is fair to a young man whose talent took him on to the world stage at a young age.
“The only thing I know for sure is that hard work correlates on the pitch.”