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This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

According to The Daily Star, Chelsea's Kurt Zouma has not handed in a transfer request despite a now deleted report by The Mirror suggesting otherwise.

What's the word, then?

Well, The Daily Star have confirmed that the France international has not revealed his desire to leave Stamford Bridge, despite Everton's interest in him being fairly well documented.

The former St Etienne centre-back shone for the Toffees last term, making 32 Premier League appearances and scoring two goals - he also struck up an impressive partnership with Michael Keane.

Marco Silva has made no secret of his desire to bring the 24-year-old back to the club on a permanent deal, although discouraging signs of late should dissuade the former Hull man and Marcel Brands from pursuing this transfer any longer.

Check out some amazing tekkers in the video below...

Must move on

Firstly, we have the aforementioned news that Zouma has not handed in a transfer request, whilst there also hasn't been any noise from the Chelsea man's corner on him desperately wanting the move.

Secondly, Frank Lampard has spoken quite clearly about his plans for the 6 foot 3 colossus, saying: "I want him here, simple as that. We are competitive with the centre backs we have in the team and he had a very good season at Everton and I can understand why they want him.

"He's a Chelsea player and I want him."

If that doesn't sound like a hands off warning, I don't know what does.

Everton find themselves in a really weak negotiating position in their pursuit of Zouma. The player himself isn't doing anything to force the move, with The Daily Star saying that he isn't prepared to do so, whilst the Blues are under a transfer ban and wouldn't be able to replace the player if they did sell him.

That would leave them with just three senior centre-backs in Andreas Christensen, David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger, whilst Cesar Azpilicueta could also play there if needs be.

There are far more red rights surrounding this transfer saga than green ones, and with just a few weeks of the window left, Everton must give up and turn their attention elsewhere - especially as Silva only has Yerry Mina and Keane to choose from as senior centre-back options.