top European teams to fight it out to sign John Stone

John Stones will be at centre of a £50m transfer scramble in the summer, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and Chelsea all keen to sign him.

Everton turned down the opportunity to sell their highly-rated centre half last summer, rejecting a £38million bid from Chelsea.

But the interest in Stones has intensified since then, with Rafa Benitez having asked Real Madrid to sign him when he was manager at the club.

Though Benitez has since been sacked, Real Madrid have maintained their interest and plan to move in the summer if an appeal against their FIFA transfer ban means that their embargo on signings is lifted.

But Barcelona are now also monitoring Stones, though may baulk at the £50m price and Manchester City, who are planning for Pep Guardiola’s reign at the club, also want to sign the player and have already demonstrated their willingness to pay huge sums for top English talent.

City have struggled in central defence with Vincent Kompany often injured while Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi have failed to justify their fees thus far.

Chelsea’s interest has not waned since last summer though they now will have to fight off three others clubs and would have to convince Stones to join a club which would be unlikely to have qualified for the Champions League.

Everton have insisted that Stones is not for sale and he is under contract until 2019 but it would be expected that they would prefer to see to one of the Spanish giants rather than a Premier League rival.

Stones is just one of the Real Madrid transfer targets, even though the club is currently banned from signing players this summer. If the club appeals the ban, they could see it delayed until next year, allowing them to sign this summer.

Real Madrid expect to sign Manchester United’s David de Gea for £30m after the debacle of failing to get him on transfer deadline day last year. Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and David Alaba are also on their list.

However, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is reluctant to sell Gareth Bale, having rejected a world record £100m bid from United for him last summer.

In fact sources close to the Spanish club say that Perez would be more likely to sell Cristiano Ronaldo to United than Bale. Perez sees the Welshman as the future iconic player around which he wishes to build the club and even though Bale has been unsettled by the departure of Rafa Benitez.

Perez’s relationship with Ronaldo is much more strained and Real Madrid executives have discussed selling him in the summer. But because the player’s marketing value to the club is so enormous, the club cannot decide definitively whether to try to sell him or not.