HULL City have confirmed opening negotiations to make Ahmed Elmohamady the club's second signing of the close-season.
The Tigers completed their first piece of business ahead of their Premier League return yesterday when tying loan favourite George Boyd to a two-year deal.
The 27-year-old agreed the permanent switch when joining City on an emergency loan in February and will formally join when his Peterborough deal expires on July 1.
City now hope Elmohamady will follow Boyd's lead in turning his successful loan into a permanent switch, with a £2m transfer fee set with parent club Sunderland.
A deal is far from guaranteed with interest from two other Premier League clubs, and City will need to be patient with Elmohamady soon to join up with Egypt on international duty for three weeks.
"We're in the process of negotiating a deal," City's managing director Nick Thompson said.
"We know where we stand with Sunderland on the price and now it's a case of agreeing a deal with the player and his agent.
"When it comes to a contract, Premier League expectations from players sometimes will not match up with our expectations. It's a case of talking and coming to a point where you can agree a reasonable position."
For the second half of the campaign, Elmohamady was one third of the Tigers' on-loan Egyptian contingent, but the futures of Gedo and Ahmed Fathi are less clear following their return to Al-Ahly.
"Gedo had foot surgery on his troublesome bone so in his case you'd wait to see how he performed in his rehabilitation before you made any decisions," Thompson explained.
"I know Steve Bruce also liked Fathi and thought he was a great addition, but there's not been a definitive yes or no at this stage."
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