Derby County are considering a move to bring Josh Bowler to Pride Park this summer.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by Hull Live, who claim that Wayne Rooney's side are interested in speaking with the 22-year-old in the coming weeks, with the winger set to leave Everton upon the expiry of his current contract at the end of the month.

The report also suggests that Hull City could be keen to bring the player back to the KCOM Stadium this summer, with Bowler having spent a year on loan at the club in the season before last.

Roberts 2.0

While Bowler impressed for David Unsworth's Everton U23 side this term, scoring three goals and providing two assists over his six Premier League 2 appearances, the winger's returns in professional football have not been overly convincing - with the youth side manager claiming that the youngster has been "frustrated" by his lack of first-team opportunities with the Toffees.

In his aforementioned loan spell with Hull, Bowler went on to make 28 Championship appearances for the Tigers, over which he scored one goal, registered no assists and created no big chances for his teammates, in addition to averaging a mere 0.3 shots on target and 0.2 key passes per game.

These disappointing returns saw the £3.1k-per-week man earn a seasonal SofaScore match rating of just 6.31, ranking him as Hull's worst performer out of all 32 of their players to make an appearance in the league that year - with Grant McCann's side finishing rock bottom in the Championship standings.

As such, with Derby County barely scraping Championship survival themselves last season, unless Wayne Rooney can bring in a number of quality additions to his side over the summer, next term would not appear to bode overly well for the Rams either.

And, one signing made by the 35-year-old manager who particularly failed to impress for Derby last season was that of Manchester City winger Patrick Roberts, who scored one goal, provided one assist and created one big chance over his 24 Championship appearances, as well as averaging a disappointing SofaScore match rating of 6.42.

So, if Rooney wishes to avoid a repeat of the mistake of signing Roberts last season, with similar statistics between the two players in their last Championship outings, it would be highly advisable for the former Manchester United forward to turn his focus away from Bowler this summer.

In other news: Rooney must sanction Derby swoop for £24k-p/w beast with who's "like a Paul Scholes"