Stoke City are reportedly on the brink of securing a deal for Plymouth Argyle’s record signing, Maksym Talovierov.

The towering 25-year-old centre-back made quite an impact in the Championship following his January transfer from Austrian team LASK Linz, for a reported fee of around £1.7m.

Despite scoring twice in 11 appearances and impressing in the FA Cup, a knee injury cut short his season and dashed Argyle’s survival hopes.

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According to Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke, Stoke are now in advanced discussions about enticing him to the bet365 Stadium, with Argyle seemingly accepting that retaining him in League One may be a challenge too far, reports Stoke on Trent Live.

Former manager Miron Muslic, who has since been succeeded by Tom Cleverley, once said: “Maksym is a commanding presence who will add height and physicality to the side, but he is also good on the ball and technically good. Most importantly, he is a good defender.”

Interest in Talovierov this summer was always likely. “It would be very surprising if there was no interest in Argyle’s Ukraine international defender Maksym Talovierov both from clubs in this country and abroad.”

They added: “Talovierov is set to report for pre-season training next week after recently being on international duty.

“His impressive performances for the Pilgrims after joining them for a club record transfer fee of around £1.7 million in January will not have gone un-noticed and at the age of 24 playing in the English third division would be far from ideal for him.”