No. It means they have firm from day one that they are not selling him to Chelsea. It's just that some people have chosen to ignore that.
I think he was referring to the firm stance taken by the club regarding the bids made for stones. Stones wouldn't have performed like he did last week if he was so unhappy with the club. Stones should heed the warning of lukaku in the express yesterday who publicly stated he should stay at everton to learn his craft. This lad would know what he is talking about after the way he was treated by Chelsea.
Curtis from the horrible rag only one saying yeah hel go . Rest saying he should stay n big mistake to leave.
Yeah, 3 out of 4 saying it would be a crying shame if he left, his price will only go up, he needs to stay at Everton for the next couple of seasons to fully develop into a top top player.
Bit of common sense from the 3 of them pal . Didn't surprise me the other horrible [Poor language removed] saying d opposite
Brilliant Andy Dunn...just brilliant Sir!Andy Dunn column: If Everton are still a big club they CANNOT sell John Stones to Chelsea
With the new TV deal coming next season and no chance of relegation, they don't need the money - so stand up to the champions and say 'No'
- 07:00, 23 August 2015
- Opinion
- by AndyDunn
- Share
- Not even if the player submits a transfer request.
Everton’s credibility is on the line here.
Michael Regan - The FA
Young and old: Everton are in different circumstances to when they sold Wayne Rooney (left)
Stones is not one of their own – Everton took him from Barnsley with a big cheque in the same way Chelsea are trying to take him from Goodison Park.
But he is a player who – along with Ross Barkley – should be in the vanguard of Everton’s future.
Of course, they have got previous when it comes to selling the future, but there was always the suspicion that the sale of Wayne Rooney was a financial necessity.
In other cases, David Moyes’ outrage during Manchester City’s courtship of Joleon Lescott will surely one day be clarified as one of the great, elaborate, price-hiking hoaxes of all time, while Marouane Fellaini was a totem of a regime Roberto Martinez was trying to revolutionise.
Ironically, Stones is a Moyes recruit and an identikit Martinez player.
In pictures - Southampton 0-3 Everton:
At the beginning of this saga, Martinez was critical of Chelsea... but Jose Mourinho and his executives have done no wrong.
This is just how they and others operate in today’s football world. Unlike Everton on occasions, they won’t look inside their own ranks and academies to solve problems.
Got a problem? Attack it with a wad.
The squad Manuel Pellegrini will bring to Goodison this weekend will have been assembled at a cost in excess of £300million.
Not sure about the £32m defender you bought last summer?
Jordan Mansfield
Adamant: Roberto Martinez has said Everton won't sell Stones and the board must back him
Then buy another £32m defender this summer.
It is the way City, Manchester United and Chelsea work.
And the litany of costly failures – think Juan Cuadrado at Chelsea, Stevan Jovetic at City, Angel di Maria at United – does not matter a jot to these clubs.
Nor does the dearth of graduates from the academies.
Make enough signings for enough money and the law of averages says you will get it right in the end.
It is not, by any means, a new mechanism for success but it remains a faintly depressing one.
For clubs outside the Premier League, the top flight’s money is irresistible. It is a wonder the French league has any players left.
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But it is resistible within its own competition. And that is the key to the Stones situation. Everton will not be relegated this season. They can start counting the money from the new TV deals. Minimum £100m a season.
What sort of message will it send to supporters if you cash in on one of your two best young players just to top up the fortunes you are getting from television?
And if Stones does express a desire to leave, then tough.
It is about time a club made a stance.
If he wanted the flexibility to leave at the drop of a hat, he should have insisted on rolling 12-month deals instead of signing a fat, new five-year contract last August.
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Presumably, his sentiments on that day – “to get pen to paper on a new deal is a dream come true” – remain the same today.
Regardless, Everton have to stand firm.
A lack of success for over two decades might have chipped away at its stature, but Everton Football Club remains a noble institution.
Take the Chelsea shilling for Stones and that nobility will be gone.
Will Stones still be an Everton player when the
I hope you're right but our "board" has form for misinformation and press manipulation and the Echo hacks seriously do not give a flying one what they print.
