Manchester City: Transfer News and Rumour Roundup 9

The Stones Throw Away

John Stones, 22, Everton, Defender

Oh boy, the Stones saga continues but, thank Heaven, appears to be reaching it’s conclusion. We’ve been hearing and talking about Stones to City for months now and the mutual admiration between the player and Pep is well known. So much so has it been obvious where Stones is going that nobody else is actually in on him and long ago did he inform his club of his desire to leave for Manchester.

Nonetheless, Everton elected to delay the inevitable to make it seem like incoming manager Ronald Koeman was either doing everything to keep Stones, and not lose talent in a team being built to win, or at least maximise his value and bleed that Manchester City lot dry.

Finally however, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The Liverpool Echo, hardly one to spin a news story to favour talent leaving it’s confines to a divisional rival, reports that Stones has made it clear to Everton that he wants to begin pre-season training with City. Everton, for their part, are holding out for £50million which is still as obscene an amount as when we paid it for Raheem Sterling last year.

As Guardiola notes, English players are expensive, that’s just the way it is. Even so, Everton’s stalling has gone on long enough and if it lasts another week then they could find themselves in training with a player who doesn’t even want to play for them.

So yeah, it looks like this one is finally coming to a close, no later than next week, but perhaps sooner. And that’s a good thing. OK, so, Stones wouldn’t have been our first choice centre back and with Bonucci rumours abounding, he still wouldn’t be. But he’s a solid player and a gifted passer, which makes him ideally suited for Pep’s game. Goodness knows we need all the help we can get at the back, and Stones would go a long way both to bringing that.

Either which way, Stones is young and nobody will get more out of him than Pep. It may not strike most as such an inspired or important signing, but to our manager it certainly seems to be, so I’m cautiously optimistic about his impact here. Let’s just hope a deal is done as early as possible.