Valencia sign Luciano Vietto on loan following links with Everton misfit Sandro Ramirez

Valencia are likely to end their interest in Everton misfit Sandro Ramirez having completed the signing of Luciano Vietto on loan from Atletico Madrid.

Manager Marcelino Garcia Toral had earmarked the signing of a new forward to complement Simone Zaza, Rodrigo and Santi Mina as a top priority for the current transfer window.

The Valencia boss regularly plays with two strikers in a 4-4-2 formation and he feared an injury to any of his options could hamper his side's impressive campaign, with Los Che currently third in La Liga, 11 points behinds leaders Barcelona and three points ahead of Real Madrid.

Zaza has playing with a partial tear in the external meniscus of his knee for a while and there have been suggestions that, at some point, the former Juventus and West Ham striker will require surgery to address the issue.

Sandro was touted as one of the main candidates to move to Mestalla in January with the Everton striker having failed to make the impact expected since his summer arrival from Malaga in a €6m (£5.3m, $7.2m) deal.

In November, Marca stressed Valencia were ready to try and sign the player on loan from Everton after Marcelino identified the Spaniard as his number one target to bolster his attack.

The Valencia boss later admitted his admiration for the former Barcelona forward but refused to confirm his plans to sign him in January.

"He is a good Spanish footballer and knows the league," Marcelino told Radio Marca. "I am not going to talk about any player who is not here."

But Valencia eventually decided to look elsewhere to bolster Marcelino's attack and have now agreed a deal with Atletico to get Vietto on loan until the end of the season, keeping an option to buy him on permanent basis in the summer for an undisclosed fee.

"Valencia CF have reached an agreement this Thursday with Atletico Madrid, to be formalised, for the loan until 30 June 2018, with an option to buy, of the Argentinian forward Luciano Vietto," the Spanish side confirmed.

Vietto has already impressed under Marcelino at Villarreal and will have a chance to resurrect his career at Mestalla following a disappointing spell at Atletico.

Valencia are now unlikely to continue the pursuit of Sandro but the Spaniard's future at Everton still looks uncertain.

On Thursday morning [4 January] Sam Allardyce suggested that Everton will be ready to part ways with the former Barcelona forward for the right price, although he did add the Toffees are are yet to receive any offers for him.

"There's been no bids for Sandro at this moment in time," he said. "There will be no loans as far as my recommendation would be, [but] I don't make the final decision - the decision is made by everybody.

"Personally, if anybody is going to leave it would have to be the right fee for us and we consider if we could use that money somewhere else to strengthen our squad."

Sevilla and Malaga are monitoring the situation while recent reports in Spain claim that Villarreal could also join the race to replace Cedric Bakambu, with the DR Congo striker set to join Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan in a €40m deal.