John Stones has asked to leave Everton

Oh boy here we go again. Apparently young defender John Stones has put in another transfer request to leave Everton. Paul Joyce of the Express, who had earlier reported that Maarten Stekelenburg will be signing with the Blues, is now saying that Manchester City is his favored destination.

In the article is the telling line -

"It was an open secret in the England camp that Stones wanted to join Hart and Sterling at City"

The reported transfer fee is even steeper than what Everton had quoted Chelsea during previous transfer windows, with the sum now at £50million.

Even this drama of transfer requests is not now for the player and the club. He was reported to have put in a transfer letter last August, which the club summarily rejected.

Stones has a contract with the club that runs until the end of the 2018-19 season, and while there were talks of giving him a raise, nothing has been put down on paper as yet.

The player has had a volatile relationship with the fans after being booed at times by the Goodison crowd during the whole fiasco with Chelsea’s attempts at turning the youngster’s head.

As such, Everton do not need to honor his transfer request and could resort to strong-arm tactics like keeping him in the reserves should he choose to be stubborn. New manager Ronald Koeman is not new to this tactic, having dealt with a similar issue with Sadio Mane while at Southampton.