Everton are reported to have opened talks with Maxime Estève who was recently relegated with Burnley, although the suggestion has been quashed by Shamoon Hafez of BBC Sport.
According to L’Equipe, both the Toffees and West Ham have begun “preliminary” negotiations over the 22-year-old centre-half who initially joined the Clarets for €12m and has been ever-present for them since.
However, Havez reports that Everton are not interested in the player at this time.
Estève is one of Burnley’s more attractive players for clubs looking to cherry-pick following their demotion back to the Championship and the imminent departure as manager of Vincent Kompany.
Kompany is on the verge of being appointed the new boss of Bayern Munich heralding more change at Turf Moor this summer.
Estève is contracted to Burnley for another four years and will, therefore, unlikely to be available for less than the ~£10m they paid for him. Given that a fee is involved, any bidding war would favour West Ham over the cash-strapped Blues.