Everton reject Stones transfer request

Everton Chairman Bill Kenwright has announced in a brief but to-the-point statement that defender John Stones is not for sale, and his transfer request has been denied.

Everton Football Club has rejected a transfer request from John Stones.

Since the start of the transfer window, we have resolutely turned down offers from another Premier League football club for our player.

John is not for sale and he will remain a highly valued member of our first team squad.

Bill Kenwright
Chairman, Everton Football Club

For those people who have been living under a rock or some other form of exile, Chelsea have been pursuing the young center back since the beginning of summer when Jose Mourinho finally acknowledged (privately) that John Terry needed to be put out to pasture somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. The self-proclaimed 'Special One' (isn't it funny how 'Special' in the USA means something else completely than across the pond?) then engaged in a war of words with Roberto Martinez regarding his blatant tapping up of the Everton player. The handbags-at-noon didn't end there either, with Mou then getting his players to start talking about Stones in press conferences and the collective English media then jumping into the act trying to sell off the lad, as if they were all going to be collecting agent fees if the perceived sale went through.

Despite Martinez's insistence that the player would not be sold, the London club went on to make three offers for Stones before the player put in a transfer request yesterday hours before the Capital One Cup game against Barnsley. But the manager was having none of it, proclaiming that the request would be rejected and inserting the player in the starting lineup.

In the post-match conference, Martinez again insisted that the player was not for sale before this morning the chairman finally stepped in and put the kibosh on all the tabloid fodder. But will this mark the end of The Stones Saga? That remains to be seen.