http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/aug/22/everton-phil-jagielka-manchester-city-john-stones
A good thing Jagielka will not be dealing with Agüero on his own then. Unless developments between Chelsea and
Everton move remarkably quickly, he should have John Stones beside him, doing his best to concentrate on the game and not dwell on the possibility that it could be his last for the club. “It’s not ideal,” Jagielka says, when the subject of Mourinho’s admiration for his 21-year-old centre-back partner inevitably raises its head. “We’ve got a saga now and it is difficult.
“I can’t get my head round why the transfer window works in this way. Surely it should shut in the first week of the new season, then everything would be done and dusted until Christmas. We should get rid of the circus once the games start because football should take priority. That’s where the entertainment should come from. Instead we have this overlap period and it unsettles people. It isn’t fair on players, especially 19- and 20-year-olds. John is the kind of character who just gets on with it, he is showing his maturity in dealing with the issue in the right way. But three or four games into the season it shouldn’t be an issue at all.”
Jagielka, now 33,
and the subject of interest from Arsenal a few years ago, is realistic enough to accept that a club of Everton’s size will find it difficult to keep hold of their best players once the very biggest names in the Premier League express an interest. He understands perfectly well why Stones might want to join Chelsea, even if his present obligation is to do his best for his current employer until the matter is settled. “We had the same sort of thing a while back with Joleon Lescott, only he was a little bit older,” Jagielka says. “This is a great club, we are a tight unit and a happy one. I’ve never known anyone who has desperately wanted to leave Everton, though realistically there are certain clubs that can offer more opportunities to win things. “Joleon went to a club that was spending a lot of money and looking to win the title, and now he’s got trophies for doing so. When it was me having those sort of conversations with the gaffer it was quite simple at the end of the day, the club didn’t want to sell me, I had to carry on doing what I was doing. But I’m not sitting here thinking about what-ifs and maybes, I’ve had a fantastic career.
“If all goes well for John and he keeps his form and fitness, I’m sure he can go all the way. Potentially, he is as good as I’ve seen. His temperament is right, his ability is right, he can defend, he’s got great physical attributes. He is definitely progressing in the right way and it wouldn’t surprise me if he became the England centre-half for the next 10 or 12 years.”
One of the reasons a section of the Everton support has grown fed up with Bill Kenwright is that spending appears to have all but dried up. The joke currently doing the rounds is that Everton have only bought Tom and Jerry all summer (Cleverley and Deulofeu), while practically every Premier League rival has made more investments. “We need to know what money is coming in before we know what is going out,” Jagielka says. “We understand the fans are frustrated but that is the position. It is easy to point the finger at the person at the top, but we are a family club and everyone is together. While we may not be the wealthiest club around, we have continuity and a certain amount of soul. We never want to become a team that has 10 ins and outs every season and struggles.
“Plus, two years ago we had to wait until the last day to pick up Gareth Barry, James McCarthy and Romelu Lukaku. Everyone was crying and booing that summer, too, because we hadn’t done anything, but it turned out to be a brilliant window for us. We are not a club that can spend £50m whenever we want. Every million counts here. For teams like us that have to be careful in the transfer market these last few days of the window are massive.”