Stamford Bridge ready to dig deep to land defensive target.
Chelsea are ready to fork out £34m to sign Everton defender John Stones according to the Daily Mirror.
The 21-year-old has impressed over the course of the last two seasons since leaving Barnsley for Everton and become a regular in Roy Hodgson’s England national team set-up.
Chelsea failed with an early bid for the versatile youngster but the Daily Mirror claims that whilst the bidding may see Stones’ price-tag push up as high as £34m, a sum greater than any Premier League side has previously paid for a defender, the Blues are reading to foot the bill.
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Both Man City and Man United are said to retain an interest in John Stones (via the Daily Mirror), who can play at full-back as well as in his primary role at centre-back.
Chelsea’s best defender, captain John Terry, is in the latter stages of his career and some sources suggest John Stones would be an ideal replacement for the 34-year-old (via Daily Telegraph).
Terry was in superb form in 2014/15, playing every single minute of Chelsea’s victorious Premier League campaign, and French youngster Kurt Zouma had previously been considered a successor to the Stamford Bridge legend (via the Daily Mail).
However Zouma has proven most effective when used in a defensive midfield role.
Jose Mourinho has made only relatively minor moves in the summer transfer moves, bringing in Radamel Falcao on a loan deal from AS Monaco and signing Stoke City keeper Asmir Begovic to replace Petr Cech.