Chelsea have had a British record bid of £37million rejected by Everton after three initial bids were rejected earlier for John Stones.
The coveted 21-year old former Barnsley defender is considered the missing puzzle in Jose Mourinho’s defense as Chelsea continue their title defense in the Premier League.
The deal will have shattered the British record for the most expensive defender in the Premier League after Manchester City bought Eliaquim Mangala for a fee of £32million last summer and recent signing Nicolas Otamendi also arriving for a fee in that region.
Chelsea are considering backing out of the deal and turn attention to other targets before the transfer window ends on September 1.
Everton earlier rejected the transfer request from want away defender John Stones, saying, he’s “not for sale”.
In a statement released by the Merseyside club on Thursday, chairman, Bill Kenwright said,
Everton Football Club has rejected a transfer request from John Stones.
Since the start of the transfer window, we have resolutely turned down offers from another Premier League football club for our player.
John is not for sale and he will remain a highly valued member of our first team squad.
Everton manager Roberto Martinez also had a say about the prolonged transfer saga, promising great things to the Barnsley academy graduate.
During this tough period we are going to be there for him,” he said.
We have great ambition, desire and great plans for John. We want to be a winning team and we need to keep our best performers and clearly John is big part of our future.
We are a big football club with an incredible tradition and we will carry on giving him everything we can.
As a young man you are under massive pressure and you are going to get influences.
We are going to look after John. We are going to understand him.
Stones started Everton’s Capital One Cup game against his former side, Barnsley and was seen waving good bye to the fans but this development could see him spend yet another season at the Goodison Park.
