It’s a price to make your eyes water. It was amusing to see Chelsea’s offer of £20m for John Stones rejected but it’s somehow not so funny when the words ‘Manchester United’, ‘John Stones’ and ‘£38m’ are mentioned in the same sentence.
Huge prospect he may be and fine talent he is at present, the price is quite staggering, but nonetheless the Mirror claim that Louis van Gaal has ‘asked to be informed’ if Everton seek to sell the young defender.
They say Stones has been unsettled by the speculation and this may be enough to prompt Everton manager Roberto Martinez to make the best of a bad situation. Everton have already had a bid rejected for Jonny Evans and so it stands to reason that the player that some even though should have been named captain when David Moyes took over (yes, some did actually think that) could be used as makeweight. The Mirror also mentions an array of players like Ashley Young, Javier Hernandez and even Tyler Blackett that could individually or collectively used to bring the price down.
You would hope so.
One more interesting line from the Mirror’s report is that United still maintain an interest in Sergio Ramos and Nicolas Otamendi is their back up target. We presume that will remain the case until Ramos publicly states his intention to remain at Real.
