Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has told Everton that he will not stop bidding for the highly-rated John Stones even if the Toffee’s claim he is not for sale.
The Blues have already had one £20 million bid knocked back for the 21-year-old defender who Portuguese manager Mourinho sees as a natural replacement for Chelsea captain John Terry, and while speaking in Canada on Chelsea’s pre-season tour Mourinho has hinted that he has not given up yet on bringing the centre-back to Stamford Bridge saying: “At the moment Everton say, ‘We don’t accept this bid’. They don’t say, ‘We don’t accept any bid.’
“While they say, ‘We don’t accept this bid’, until September 1 [when the summer transfer window closes] we can improve it. One pound more, ten pounds more – we can improve the bid. It is an open market until September 1.
“If one day Roberto, or the chairman, come and say: ‘He’s not for sale, we don’t accept any bid’, [then it’s] game over. So during this process, it’s clear.
“We don’t deny we made a bid for Stones. It means we are trying to buy.”
Everton manager Roberto Martinez had this to say about Chelsea’s attempt to sign one of his best players: “Another football club is making such a statement so openly and I don’t think that is the way we would do it at Everton. We wouldn’t speak about a player that is at another club.
“But there is no issue from our point of view. John Stones is an Everton player, full stop.
