Report: Chelsea were warned off Stones before leaked bid

Only question: does "Off limits" carry the same meaning as "Not for sale"? Maybe not in Portuguese...

Fucking Jose, he never misses a chance to stick it to another manager, does he? He knows perfectly well Roberto has zero say in the finance of Everton. If the money is right, the same owners dumped Wayne Rooney for petty cash, won’t hesitate to cash in on Stones.

Abramovich’s money people know so and Mourinho can talk shit with impunity.

Fucker.

That being said, Chelsea have no intention of paying that much and are only seeking to put pressure on Everton. It's a dirty and unprofessional trick to try and unsettle another club's player. Fortunately, I don't think Stones is the type of guy to make a fuss in this situation.

We all know that if Everton don't get better, Stones might eventually want to move on. I can't say that I would blame him in that case either. But with players like Stones willing to learn and grow with Everton, we at least have that chance of climbing the Premier League ladder.

So the negotiations have been going on for a bit then?

Because they are PL champions and in the CL (not to mention the obscene wages paid) Jose believes all players will want to join. So, he makes a bid for a player he admires. Player’s club says "No"! What next?

Jose goes public. Player’s agent agitates for a move, the press get on the club’s back for "standing in the way of the player’s progress" etc. If the player (as most of them do), has all his brains in his feet, he will have his head turned and request a transfer etc. The whole saga is played out in public. End result? The player is transferred to a new club.

Hughes did it with Lescott.

DM did it with Baines and Fellaini after he had left us for MU.

The one thing I do believe is that Stones is from a different mould. As Southgate said when Stones was with the U21s,"he is the only one in the squad that does not have a Twitter account."

I don’t think John will have his head turned by what is going on in the public domain - because it doesn’t matter to him. He is his own man, mature beyond his years. I believe he is happy at Everton, sees it as his best chance to develop into a better footballer, and will resist any attempt to sell him until he thinks he is ready, which, if we manage to achieve moderate success over the coming few seasons, may be never.

We don’t need this sort of crap from Moreenyo. Are these his "special" tactics?

Roberto has said his word on it; now let it die -- it will.

The only ones that will be chuffed with this whole scenario are the Everton board as per usual as it takes the focus off the fact that, amidst all the other transfer deals going on, we are one of the few clubs that look happy to stay as we were last season, stick in a pool of mediocrity.

I do not care what people say, we have done nowhere near enough to improve this side from what we witnessed last term.

There must surely be a small part of Martinez’s mind that is working overtime on this possible goings on should Chelsea offer £40 million (I doubt they will) for John Stones.

As much as I don’t want to sell the lad, £40 million for a defender that plays in a rather suspect defence and is himself as of yet not a strong defender, people say he is great at walking the ball out of defence but I ask you this, walking the ball out and passing to who?? One of the many midfield crabs in front of him? It's hardly like he has Pirlo or Iniesta in front of him, is it?

I do not want Stones to go of course but £40 million for a defender, remember he is not going to win you matches or score 20 goals, is a lot of money for a club that clearly needs a massive shot in the arm and in my opinion still needs to replace the entire spine of the team with a bit of steel, character and quality.

How great would it be if Bill Kenwright actually knew Garret Morris and they could film him doing his old "Headmaster of the School for the Hard of Hearing" bit, and then play it during Roberto’s next press conference - JOHN STONES..IS..NOT..FOR..SALE..AT..ANY..PRICE! YOU’RE ACTING..LIKE..A..SPOILED..BRAT! THANK YOU..AND..HAVE..A..PLEASANT..TOMORROW! You know, have a little fun with Jose.

I don’t know, maybe it wouldn’t come off as funny as it would over here. But it would definitely be different, and it would certainly get his and the media's attention. He couldn’t say he didn’t get the message.

Garbutt's departure is the latest to enrage Leeds in recent years, with Chelsea paying several million pounds in compensation for taking three players from them, and the club's chief executive, Shaun Harvey, believes the current tribunal system is an inadequate deterrent.

"Compensation awards, we feel, are no longer a sufficient deterrent – and perhaps now is the time to start considering points deductions," said Harvey. "We need to arrive at a system whereby in any transfer there is a willing buyer, willing seller and willing player.

"If we'd had an option we would have chosen to keep the player. We feel we were deprived of the opportunity to develop the player to his full potential. We now appeal to the football authorities to mount a combined review of the registration system in place domestically to provide further financial assurances for clubs who lose players to predator clubs."

Pot-Kettle-Black?

We also need to convince Stones that this is the best place for him to play his football. If we can not do this then we have big problems.

Stones as well as Lukaku, Barkley and James McCarthy all have long term contracts, maybe a gentle reminder of this is the next course of action if we fail to convince them.

I agree on the point made earlier that Mourinho is simply doing what he always does -- he is playing with the media and using them to his advantage... and he has willing lap-dog journalists from the likes of the Telegraph and the Express eating out of his hand.

Just watch the relentless narrative from the London based media in these final pre-season weeks. It will involve lots of soundbites from Chelsea's media machine proclaiming innocence whilst RM is subjected to the journalistic equivalent of water boarding, questioning his intent to hold on young Stones, his abilities as a manager etc, all of course leading to the inexorable path of a Stones's exit from Everton FC.

Whilst I have strong concerns about RM as our manager, I am with him 100 per cent on this one; he (and the board) must stand strong and continue to tell those classless bastards at Chelsea FC to fuck off. What an odious, repulsive club they are, despite their sickening and ill-gotten wealth.

Interesting to read Lawrenson saying Liverpool should expect another (!) signing because currently they've only net spent half of last years TV money. And we've spent 1/20th. Someone somewhere knows where this money is going.

All dipsticks like Scudamore care about is "the EPL brand" & lining pockets of hangers on – they've been killing the England team for 10+ years. I was lucky enough to see England win the World Cup; 'cos of the EPL, there's no chance of our grand-kids seeing that never mind our kids.

A salary cap (as per MSL in USA) should be implemented and all clubs in the EPL compelled to have at least 6 English players on the pitch. This would make our clubs develop English players instead of going global importing kids & their parents from all over the globe – and tell the EC to go take a hike if they don't like it.

If a player is under contract, and has not made a transfer request, à la Sterling, it should be illegal for another club to publicly make their intentions to tempt a player to break his contract with his employer. Fair enough if the buying club want to make a private approach, but no way should such matters be conducted as a public media circus.

I used to have a degree of respect for Mourinho but that has now gone out the window faster than you can say 'prawn sandwich'.

I don't know what the solution is, but something has to give. If you're young and English you get one good season then you're put out to pasture on £30k per week and playing reserve football for the next 5 years.

Not sure how you fix these problems without imposing wage or transfer caps across the board like in the NFL and that ain't ever happening.

He needs to be better than anyone in the World who City will just buy above him. Worst club for a youngster to join in my opinion.

FA rules allow a club to "loan in" just four players, and what a hullabaloo Everton caused by doing just that two seasons back. Oddly enough there was hardly a whisper about us then subsequently signing previous loanees.

Surely if there is a limit to "loaning in" then there should also be a fair limit to "loaning out", and certainly that limit should not be almost double the number of players in the first team squad?

Whilst I feel confident EFC can hold out this year we must be watchful of next summer for the seeds of doubt that have been planted...

He is simply doing what he is paid to do ie put the building blocks in place to achieve success, even if it does mean tapping up a highly prized opposition player.

Furthermore, the media will run this story until the transfer window closes.

The heart of the matter here is that, if we are not selling him, how to stop the speculation affecting him. Everton and Stones need to work out a way not to let it bother them. The story will die a death when the transfer window closes.

That is assuming that our beloved BK doesn't actually want to sell.

I don't know how many times it takes to show them how wrong it is but they never learn. If they did the system would actually correct itself.

I'd have no qualms with Stones going to Chelsea at 25/26 and having a list of replacements drawn up but not now. It's career suicide.

If Everton thought sending a fax to Chelsea telling them Stones was not for sale was really going to stop them from doing anything, then they are very naive to say the least.

If the club don’t want to sell him then just say no with every bid and move on. No need to go crying to the press about being annoyed that the news was leaked.

I get your drift about transfers in general but to suggest that Everton went crying to the press is a bit harsh don't you think?. RM only responded to the Newspaper reports following a question from a media representative and Everton FC had responded to Chelsea prior to the bid being leaked to the media.

The end result may well be that Everton lose one of their quality players in the end but I don't think they have so far done anything that could be frowned upon.

So...Jose is lying, but yes you're right; rules regarding transfer protocols are constantly being broken. Everyone knows Chelsea is doing it, but Jose turns on the charm and the press plays the old "Oh Jose, we can't stay mad at you" card.

Turned down a bid of £6 million for Mirallas ... we are hoping for £8 million. He's 27 and on his day very very good. Downing gone for £7 million, Roberts? £11 million. What is going on? Surely he's at least £12 million even with a year to go!

I think all the managers went on a stag do but because Martinez couldn't make it they all said, "Right, let's really take the piss and ruin Everton FC. Put in as many low bids as possible and unsettle all the players and, if Everton ask after our players, double their price (Dann, Lennon etc...). Problem was it was BK's stag do and he came up with the idea! !!

I don't know what the rules are to be honest but it does seem ungentlemany (at the very least) to make public a bid for a player.
It shows me what an ungentlemanly prick Maureen is.

'I'd like to make it clear today to the press, Chelsea Football Club and Jose that John Stones is not for sale and that no bids for him will be considered in this or any future window.'

That would have killed the story there and then. Instead we had Mourinho and his circus and the press saying 'Martinez angrily blasts Chelsea' etc and turned it into an unnecessary palaver.

With all the money in football, Everton would be sending out all the wrong signals if Stones was sold, unless the world record for a defender is broken.

It is the last thing we need now though, with a new season approaching.

So far, the club have done the right thing – told Chelsea no in a private letter. Chelsea are clearly not respecting that and are conducting their courtship publicly through the media. So now it's time for Everton to respond just as publicly: a statement in a press conference saying John Stones is not for sale. How bloody hard is that?

Stones will leave, probably for £34 million yes, but I'd play hard ball and try and get the full £40 million or tell them to fuck off!!

I'm getting to the point now with football and Everton in general the way we are run, the lack of marketing skills etc, where I don't even care; if Stones goes, so be it. He's got a great future sure but he's never been a modern day stalwart, I was more gutted when Cahill and Arteta left because of the time they spent here.

Get £40 million off Renta-club and spend it on at least two of these four:

Ryan Shawcross, Charlie Austin, a top quality creative midfielder that can find a pass and can move forward, and finally a goalkeeper, a proper Number One to replace Howard, be it Ospina or Tom Heaton, whoever.

Giving more publicity to it will only make matters worse by drawing more attention to it and making it become a saga and drawing more attention to the lad himself. We are Evertonians aren't we? Some on here need to start supporting our club instead of forever criticising BK & RM.

Then we'll have to pay top dollar for a bog standard CB. £16m for Shawcross or some such nonsense.

Oh dear.

Not good. Hard to turn that down.

Crap, this doesn't encourage me.

We sold Lescott for £24 Million and signed 3 players that made the squad a bit bigger, but not much better with the money.

We do need players, but we don't seem in a hurry. Maybe we are waiting to sell before we buy AGAIN? We are a club, that bring out so much speculation from our own supporters, it's very soul searching.

He will have told RM if he wants to join Chelsea, and if he does the best we can do is get the best possible price. It is also important that we identify who we need and get the deal done.

Daily Mail - John Stones seen buying CFC pyjamas in Harrod's.
Daily Mirror - Stones tells friends he's desperate to sit on chavs bench
Daily Telegraph - Young defender begs Martinez to let him play for boyhood heroes.
The Guardian - England defender prepared to play for free to force dream move
The Sun - Chelsea boss seen courting young defender in Fortnum & Mason's
Metro - Chelsea fan, John Stones, begs manager to let him go.
The Independent - Everton chairman, Bill Kenwright, abducted by aliens

Three days old now and the rags are still churning out the same old rehashed shite. So now it's £26M? Tomorrow £31M and final offer £35M? I wouldn't lose to much sleep over this media-fed frenzy tbh. There's not one credible source to back the theory that the lad is pushing for a move or, even unsettled.

They can write all they want about how the lad would fit in the Chelsea squad, how he'd develop alongside JT, what a great move it would be for him, how poor little Everton will be unable to resist the siren of the Russian whore etc.... The fact is, we don't want to sell, we don't need to sell FULL FUCKING STOP!!!

Yes, we've been through this before with Rooney and Lescott etc... but we've also stopped Seamus and Baines from leaving recently. This is not the same old prostrate EFC of 10, even 5 years ago. We aren't flush with cash but we aren't desperate either. Only Stonesy can make this move happen and as far as I know, he won't.

So stop your worrying and sit back and enjoy the media circus. As the days pass by the hacks will become increasingly hysterical and desperate to satisfy their paymasters. Rumours will abound of flare ups between player and manager, tears, tantrums, hot flushes, door slamming etc.... It's all part of the psychological war that Chelsea will now wage between now and August 31st.

"I'd like to make it clear today to the press, Chelsea Football Club and Jose that John Stones is not for sale and that no bids for him will be considered in this or any future window.'"

FFS - How can you make this thread RM's fault? He's the manager not the owner. Remember Howard Kendall saying Big Dunc was not for sale and he was gone 48 hours later.