It’s become common knowledge that Everton will look to sign at least one centre half this summer. After all Phil Jagielka is 35 years old and Ashley Williams is the wrong side of 33 and given how the Welshman performed last season, he definitely needs replacing. Ramiro Funes Mori could also be on his way out after being linked with multiple clubs.

As a result, a number of central defenders are likely to be linked with a move to Goodison Park in this transfer window. Indeed, there have already been surprising links to highly-rated Dutch youngster Matthijs de Ligt, an 18 year old who has been linked to pretty much every top club around Europe.

And joining him on the list of reported targets is Bayer Leverkusen centre back Aleksandar Dragovic, according to the Leicester Mercury.

They report that Everton have already held talks with the Austrian defender about a move to Merseyside. Dragovic spent the second half of last season on loan with Leicester City, making 11 appearances in total, and there had been an assumption that they would look to make the move a permanent one this summer.

They, though, have turned their attention elsewhere after signing Jonny Evans and Everton have stepped in and made their move as far as the newspaper is concerned.

The 27-year-old Austrian-born defender has 63 caps, with club stints at Austria Vienna, FC Basel, Dynamo Kiev and Leverkusen before being loaned out to the Foxes last season. He has previously been linked with Manchester United and Arsenal, but in recent years has become more of a squad player than anything else.

What we think…

There’s very little substance to this one so far. The Leicester Mercury only provides one line of text linking Dragovic to Everton in their piece, and no other inkling of this meeting elsewhere. There is no suggestion of whether Bayer Leverkusen want to see what fee they would want or even whether the player would be interested in the move.

With such little information available it’s hard to pass comment on this rumour until something more substantial appears. We’re filing this one under ‘unsubstantiated’.