Jose Mourinho Remains Keen On John Stones, January Move On The Card

Chelsea will definitely feel like a wounded tiger after failing to land Everton defender John Stones despite all their strong efforts. However, a saying that goes ‘when a tiger is forced to take two steps backwards it does so just to pounce’ can be applied to Chelsea’s situation with John Stones, as the Blues are expected to renew their efforts to sign the 21 year old defender come January.

Many would have expected Chelsea to turn their sights to other targets after failing to secure the signing of John Stones despite submitting four bids, which were all rejected.  The 21 year old was also reported to have submitted a transfer request in the closing stages of transfer window, which was also rejected. Everton’s tough resistance was enough to deny Chelsea in their bid to land Stones.

As things stand, it seems Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is not contented with the signing of former Nantes defender Papy Djilobodji who can be regarded as a cut-price alternative to Stones. Therefore Chelsea will be making another attempt at signing John Stones in the January transfer window.

Jose Mourinho is keen to re-structure his faulty Chelsea defence, with Branislav Ivanovic expected to depart the club in coming months. The Serbian has not had the best of starts to his 2015/2016 season and this could be the reason why Chelsea is holding out on offering the 31 year old a contract extension. Ivanovic’s current contract expires next summer and failure to put to pen another deal before that time will make him a free agent.