 EVERTON are still “confident” a deal can be struck for Aiyegbeni Yakubu, despite Middlesbrough’s asking price rising to £12.5million. The Blues have had a starting bid of £10.5m rejected by Boro, but believe a compromise can be reached with the Teesiders, who need cash to push through a £6m deal for Brazilian striker Afonso Alves. Yakubu has made it clear to club officials at the Riverside he wants to move to Merseyside and was withdrawn from the squad which won at Fulham on Saturday. But Boro are determined to squeeze as much cash as they can from his departure, with West Ham and Portsmouth also monitoring the situation. In Everton’s favour, however, is Yakubu’s desire to switch to Goodison Park, and talks will continue over the next few days. The Blues have also had discussions with the advisors of CSKA Moscow’s Brazilian striker Wagner Love as a possible alternative, but the Russians’ valuation is way in excess of what Everton believe the 23-year-old to be worth. The elaborately coiffured front-man does not have a prolific goalscoring record, but was impressive in both the Champions League last season and Brazil’s 6-1 demolition of Chile this summer. The complicated paperwork surrounding Manuel Fernandes’ £8m signing from Benfica, meanwhile, is still being worked on and the Blues hope to have the midfielder’s signing completed soon. New signing Leighton Baines, meanwhile, will make his first appearance in an Everton shirt in a behind closed doors friendly with Barnsley at Bellefield. Phil Jagielka, Anderson Silva and striker Lukas Jutkiewicz are also expected to feature. Meanwhile, Tim Cahill is leaping back to fitness. But the Blues are trying to keep their influential Australian’s feet firmly on the ground for the next few weeks. The goalscoring midfielder could be back to fitness by the end of September, but physio Mick Rathbone has warned that the incredible spring Cahill generates may have contributed to him twice suffering a broken foot. “Tim jumps very high and unfortunately has a habit of landing on his left foot,” he explained. “So like at Sheffield United when he landed and overbalanced, he cracked it. “It was similar against Werder Bremen, albeit five months after and he had trained every day for a month and played three games for Australia. “But with that kind of force going through it, it just caused a little injury to the site again. “So while we’re happy he’ll soon be back training, it is in our minds that he has to jump and land on that.” Cahill is itching to get back into training, but the Blues are urging caution in order to avoid any recurrence. “He’s walking round with no symptoms at all now,” added Rathbone. “It’s so frustrating. We’re looking for 6-12 weeks on that. “Getting him back into training isn’t so bad, getting him back running round isn’t a problem, but getting him jumping like he does, and landing full force on the outside of his left foot, it’s going to be a while before it’s going to be strong enough to be able to do that.” | 
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