---
title: "Second Stones bid rejected"
canonical: "https://readeverton.com/second-stones-bid-rejected/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Rhodri Cannon"
section: "Everton News"
published: "2015-07-29T15:39:54Z"
modified: "2015-08-01T08:58:09Z"
---

# Second Stones bid rejected

Everton have rejected Chelsea’s £25 million offer for John Stones, according to various media outlets.

The talented centre-half has been on Jose Mourinho’s radar for a while and the Portuguese manager has been very public with his interest.

Everton rejected an opening bid of £20million for Stones a couple of weeks ago, and are furious with Chelsea’s behaviour.

Manchester United and Manchester City have also been linked with a move for the former Barnsley defender, but their interest hasn’t resulted in a formal bid.

Roberto Martinez sees John Stones as a key component to his Everton side and will go toe-to-toe with Jose Mourinho, who seems hell-bent on bringing the 21-year-old in as John Terry’s successor.

Everton have announced they have no intention to sell Stones and have told Chelsea twice that he’s not for sale (via Sky Sports).

Chelsea are likely to return with a third bid for John Stones, but they won’t go any higher than £30million.

Everton are expected to knock back the bid, the Express report the Toffees want a fee of around £34million.

The Toffees have been looking for other centre-backs to add cover for Stones and Phil Jagielka, Virgil Van Dijk and Jonathan Heurtaux have been continuously linked with a move to Merseyside.

UPDATE: The Express are now reporting that Jose Mourinho has seemingly ended his pursuit of John Stones.

When asked if there would be a third bid in his press conference today the Chelsea manager said ‘no’ and that he “doesn’t speak about players from other clubs.”

This will come as a relief to Roberto Martinez, who has been staunch in his attempts to keep Stones at Goodison.

Manchester United have also stated they have no interest in bringing the 21-year-old to Old Trafford this summer.

With regards to a centre-back joining Everton, the Toffeemen have recently been linked with Dynamo Kiev’s Aleksandar Dragovic and Manchester United’s Jonny Evans.