Everton’s Roberto Martínez criticises Chelsea over John Stones pursuit

Roberto Martínez has said Everton’s refusal to sell John Stones to Chelseademonstrated the richest clubs cannot simply “click your fingers and get anything you want” and claimed the late transfer deadline could threaten the security of players who want to move.

Everton insist they have drawn a line under the protracted transfer saga after their chairman, Bill Kenwright, issued a statement on Thursday clarifying that Stones is not for sale and “will remain a highly valued member of our first-team squad.” Kenwright’s comment followed the rejection of three Chelsea bids of £20m, £26m and £30m for the England international, with Martínez denying the Premier League champions had submitted a fourth offer for the 21-year-old defender.

The Everton manager admits Stones has been “mixed up” by Chelsea’s pursuit and that his transfer request – rejected in a meeting between Martínez and the player before Kenwright’s statement – stemmed from receiving “the wrong advice”. He said: “It can be for different reasons, different agendas but I’m not going to go into that.”

But Martínez also believes Everton’s stance on a player with four years remaining on his contract served notice that not all Premier League clubs bend to the will of wealthier rivals. “As a club we have the player and we can say we are keeping him. We know the pressure that will bring and that is why the chairman deserves incredible credit,” said Martínez, who signed the young Uruguay striker Leandro Rodríguez on Friday and hopes to add another attacking player plus the River Plate defender Ramiro Funes Mori before Tuesday’s deadline.

“Any chairman would look at any financial deal as an opportunity to do things but our chairman has done what any Evertonian would do and made the right decision for the football club, not for the financial aspect. Any chairman would put his manager into a big problem if he sold one of the club’s biggest assets at this stage of the window, and that happens. But our chairman has been very clear and very strong.

“In any transfer deal a player can make a decision on whether to accept a deal or stay when two clubs agree. In this situation the two clubs never agreed. It is no good thinking that because you have a Champions League budget you’re going to click your fingers and get anything you want because clearly we don’t work like that.”