Will John Stones be a Chelsea player by September?

Everton centre-back John Stones is wanted by Premier League champions Chelsea

According to Sky Sports, Everton have turned down a third bid from Chelsea for highly-rated centre-back John Stones, which is reported to have been around £30million.

The Toffees have already stated that the youngster is not for sale, but Chelsea keeps upping their offer.

Winners

Whatever the outcome of Chelsea’s interest in John Stones, Everton will be winners. If the Toffees manage to fend-off interest in the centre-back then they get to keep one of the most promising young players in the Premier League.

However, if Chelsea does keep upping their offer then the Toffees would make a massive profit on the youngster, who they signed from Barnsley for just £3million back in January 2013. A larger bid from Chelsea may make Everton re-consider their stance.

Promising

At 21 years old John Stones is a very promising young player. In fact he is regarded as one of the best young defenders England has produced in recent years. However, Stones has made less than 50 Premier League appearances in his career.

If Chelsea does continue to raise their offers then the Blues will be paying a lot of money for a player with relatively little Premier League experience.

Poor

Chelsea have endured a lacklustre start to their Premier League campaign. Blues boss Jose Mourinho has tried to blame everybody but the clubs tea lady for their poor start to the campaign. However his team have simply just not performed well enough.

The Blues defence was exposed in the recent game against Manchester City and captain John Terry was sacrificed at half-time in favour of the more mobile Kurt Zouma. At that point City were winning 1-0.

In the end the substitution backfired, as the Blues went on to concede two more goals in the second half. It was certainly not the performance of champions against their predicted nearest rivals.

The performance and start to the season led to reports that the Blues are going to splash out big money to strengthen their squad before the transfer window shuts in January.

Everton could take advantage of Chelsea’s current situation and have every right to do so. John Stones is an Everton player and no doubt the Merseysider’s do not want to sell one of their brightest young stars. If they do in fact end up selling Stones then it will be for a massive fee.

Selling

Everton have already stated that they do not want to sell John Stones this summer, but every player has his price and clubs have to listen when they are offered mega money for a player. It has been reported in the media that the Toffees are holding out for £40million for the defender.

That would represent a British-record for a defender and the Toffees are definitely in the driving seat when it comes to Stones future.

Happy

Stones has recently stated that he is happy at Everton and wants to develop his central defensive with England international colleague Phil Jagielka. The youngster will no doubt play far more regularly for the Toffees this season than if he were to move to Stamford Bridge.

Despite Terry’s recent substitution against City he is likely to remain first choice centre-back alongside Gary Cahill for the Premier League champions. Mourinho’s team also have the ample talents of French youngster Kurt Zouma in their squad.

Stones is regarded as an England regular of the future, having already won four caps for the Three Lions. He will be expected to go to next year’s European Championships, but is less likely to feature for Roy Hodgson’s men if he has not been playing regular first team football in the Premier League.

Inevitable

Sadly it almost seems inevitable that Chelsea will sign John Stones prior to the transfer window shutting on September 1^st. Money talks in football and if the Blues keep upping their offers then Everton will cave in at some point.

It would be fantastic if the Toffees just kept turning the bids down, but there will come a point when the offer is too tempting for the Goodison Park financiers and Stones will probably head to the capital.

Will John Stones be a Chelsea player by September?