Everton rival West Ham for Burnley defender

Three centre-backs we're 'looking at' supposedly.

If there's any truth to these, then clearly Thelwell is hedging his bets re losing Jarrad Branthwaite this summer.

A young, left-footed centre-back who is comfortable to bring the ball out of the defence? We can never have enough of those!

If Jarrad is indeed to be sold for not less than £100M, then Estève can be a competent replacement for 10-15% of the price.

This is very much similar to when Lescott was sold to Man City and we got Distin in subsequently.

Though as painfully as I typed this out, the Hammers can easily blow us away by structuring a more attractive deal financially for both the club and the player.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

What West Ham can't offer the kid is a chance to play. They've got Zouma and Mavropanos and, as of Tuesday, Fabricio Bruno from Flamengo.

We may wind up with Esteve anyway. Hammers could sign him and loan him out to us for a year.

West Ham have told Zouma to find another club.

An excellent tall left-footed centre-back – kind of demonstrates my consistent points that players of talent are available at low cost … but we consistently choose to ignore the markets where such players are available, choosing instead to pay a hefty premium for Premier League experience.

It would be galling to buy Esteve now for what will presumably be much more than the £12M Burnley agreed for him as their option to buy after loan just a few months ago.

There are other low cost and classy centre-backs out there still at low cost...

He's a good young player, though unlikely to hit the heights of Branthwaite (few will!).

I wouldn't want to pay a lot more than the £12M that Burnley did – especially when a more established player like Jacob Greaves from Hull is probably available for around £16M.

With Kompany leaving I should think Burnley are likely to have something of a player overhaul, depending on who takes over. I reckon if this comes off it might be a season loan. Maybe even with Michael Keane going the other way - although I suspect he might want to stay in the Premier League.

The restrictions on rules are pretty confusing (to me anyway) but this season, if almost entirely restricted to loans and free transfers, we need to be confident that whoever we take on loan will a) fill the obvious holes in our squad and b) be likely to start the majority of games.

Just a thought but this guy may be available on loan or for a few million: Yerson Mosquera.

He is a Wolves player and tagged as the next Mina for Columbia (without the glass hamstrings). He's become a beast for FC Cincinnati where he led MLS in recovery runs and also in a combined stat regarding tackles, interceptions, successful challenges.

He played in a 3-back system at Cincinnati and at times was on the left or right of Matt Miazga (another player signed and ruined by Chelsea by loaning him out every year to different teams in different leagues).

He is on loan at Villarreal and was essentially a regular. His appearances with them were limited by his extension of his loan with FC Cincinnati through the playoffs so he really was there half a season.

The young man is strong, can play with the ball at his feet, picks a forward pass, and actually gets forward with the ball. Also has a bit of a mean streak in him at times. Oh yeah, he can score goals too.

Wolves' plan was for him to play in the MLS or a comparable league, then the Championship or a top European league in order to prepare him for playing for them. I think they wouldn't mind him playing a season in England for another team and maybe Everton could do a loan-to-buy option.

Paul @ 5, not according to the West Ham fan sites is Zouma being told to find another club.

Maybe you have heard, or read, something differently?