Sky Sports have reported that Chelsea have had a £20m bid for Everton centre-back John Stones rejected by the Merseysiders.
The 21-year-old established himself as first choice centre-back alongside captain Phil Jagielka last season, breaking up the latter's long-standing defensive partnership with Sylvain Distin in the process.
Stones featured for England U21s at this summer's European Championships and is already very much in the plans of Roy Hodgson ahead of next year's senior tournament in France.
Chelsea are looking to bolster their defensive ranks with John Terry now 34 and Gary Cahill having had a difficult season last time around.
Stones is incredibly composed on the ball for his age and boasted the best pass accuracy at Everton last season (89.5%), with Everton conceding just 1.04 goals per game when the youngster started compared to 1.6 when he didn't.
Click here to see more of John Stones' detailed statistics from the 2014/15 campaign
