Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that his side have placed a bid for Everton defender John Stones
Following his brilliant performances over the last two seasons, John Stones has risen to prominence as one of the finest young defenders around in world football at the moment.
As a result, it has been no surprise to see Stones being courted by some of the very best clubs in the world and recent revelations were made that Chelsea had placed a £20million bid in an attempt to sign the young man.
Everton immediately rebuffed the offer as they are not looking to part with Stones but Chelsea are planning to test the Toffees’ resolve once again by tabling another bid at an improved fee of around £28million.
Mourinho confirms interest in Stones
Now Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has moved on to confirm that he is interested in signing Stones and added that the Blues had placed another offer for the young defender.
Speaking to reporters during Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the USA, Mourinho said, “We made a bid, the bid is there and Everton has the power to accept it or refuse it, this is a problem between John Stones and Everton and I don’t speak about him because he is an Everton player.
“If we made a bid it is because we like the player, we don’t make bids for players we don’t like, but we respect Everton and respect every club that has a player and it is up to them, everything is in their hands. If today I receive a bid for Fabregas in two minutes I will say I don’t accept any bid, game over, that’s it.”
Martinez not happy with Mourinho
Everton manager Roberto Martinez has certainly taken exception to Chelsea’s public courtship of Stones and has retaliated back at Jose Mourinho’s comments by stating that he has been offended by the Portuguese boss’ lack of respect shown for the Toffees.
Martinez told the media in Singapore, “That is not the way we would do it at Everton, we would not speak of a player who is registered at another club and there is no issue from our point of view – John Stones is an Everton player.
“We are not a selling club. We are not a club that needs to be worried about what other clubs put through the press.”
The saga surrounding Stones is certainly heating up at the moment and it will be interesting to see whether Everton will be able to reject Chelsea’s advances given the mammoth nature of the bid.
