Sean Dyche: Everton's new signing Youssef Chermiti has 'raw talent'

Everton manager Sean Dyche is looking forward to welcoming new signing striker Youssef Chermiti to the club, after he signed from Sporting.

The 19-year-old is on the verge of a £12million transfer from Portugal and Dyche hopes he will ease some of the burden on Dominic Calvert-Lewin and bolster a team who were the Premier League's lowest scorers as they narrowly escaped relegation last season.

"He is nearly at a situation for me to be clear on. It's very close now. Hopefully that will get done," said Dyche, who rejected reports the club were also in negotiations for Paris St Germain forward Hugo Ekitike.

"That's a young player who can add a different layer and a different dimension to rebuilding or adding to the squad. We are not putting any kind of pressure on him at all at this stage.

"He is very young in his career both on and off the pitch and in his natural professional understanding but we think he has the raw talents and ingredients to be a good player so that's why we've got him here."

Everton's transfer business has been somewhat underwhelming over the summer as, having either sold or realeased five first-team players, they have brought in 38-year-old Ashley Young and Arnaut Danjuma from Villarreal on loan.

Finances continue to be an issue as the club continue to work under strict limitations after cumulative losses of more than £400million over the last five years.

"There are a number of players out there, I've said all along we are working hard - which we are doing - so let's see what we can open up," added Dyche.

"There are challenges, that has been apparent. We have been linked with many. It's not really an exact number (needed).

"There was a big imbalance in the squad last year, too many players in certain positions, so we are having to rebalance so therefore we need to find that balance so the players can fill in the slots but obviously of the quality we think is appropriate and it's finding that mixture.

"We have some experienced players here so can we find some younger players as well to add into that experience."

Calvert-Lewin, who missed the majority of last season through injury, may only be fit enough for a place on the bench at home to Fulham as he has not had many minutes in pre-season.

"He just needs game time. Unfortunately the games have just run out in pre-season for him, if it had been a couple of weeks earlier we could have got more game time in," said the manager, who will make a late decision on whether the striker makes the bench for Fulham at the weekend.

"But he is fit and well so we are just finishing off his programme and if he comes through that we will be looking forward to having him back."

Even at this early stage the squad is being stretched with captain Seamus Coleman recovering from a knee injury and Dele Alli having suffered a setback in his return from a groin problem.

But perhaps the biggest blow is the absence of winger Dwight McNeil, who was one of their better players in the last-gasp successful battle against relegation.

"Dwight unfortunately is not going to be days, it's going to be weeks - but not loads of weeks," said Dyche.

"It's an unfortunate one with an ankle ligament injury but we're hopeful his body deals with that pretty quickly."