Ramiro Funes Mori arrives in Liverpool ahead of joining Everton in £6million

Everton have been monitoring Mori over the last few weeks and it has now been revealed that the Toffees have made a breakthrough in their pursuit for the central defender by agreeing a fee of around £6million with River Plate.

The Sun newspaper reported on Friday that Stones, and England global, could hand in a transfer request but Roberto Martinez has confirmed that he is not aware of such an action being taken by the player.

Everton sent chief scout Kevin Reeves to watch Funes Mori play when River Plate beat Tigres in the final of the Copa Libertadores earlier this month.

Both Sylvain Distin and Antolin Alcaraz departed the Merseyside club this summer, with young Barnsley defender Mason Holgate making the switch to Goodison Park – two years after Stones.

Martínez, meanwhile, has insisted Stones remains focused on starting for Everton against Manchester City on Sunday despite being subject of a rejected £30m bid from Chelsea this week.

The Everton boss said: “I think the latest situation is the same”. “It’s been the hot topic of this transfer window and will be highlighted every day the window is open but our focus is only the games”. We are trying to work as hard as we can to make a couple of new additions to the squad.

Everton are also interested in signing Ukrainian forward Andriy Yarmolenko from Dynamo Kiev in a £14.25m deal.