Stones wants City move wrapped up quicky

Lyndon Lloyd | Tuesday, 12 July 2016

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John Stones has told Everton he wants to be a Manchester City player by the time he starts pre-season, according to a report.

The Liverpool Echo (and now MailOnline, although they seem to have picked up Phil Kirkbride's story, and the more reputable Guardian) claim that the 22-year-old has informed Ronald Koeman of his desire to leave Goodison Park for the Eithad Stadium and is hoping a deal can be thrashed out in the coming days so he can link up with his new club next week.

Stones is due to join up with the Everton squad for pre-season training after the coming weekend following his post-Euro2016 break but if this report is true, he would prefer to be a City player by then instead rather than drag the situation out further.

The former Barnsley man has been linked with a transfer to Manchester for most of the summer and there were suggestions from Merseyside sources before the European Championships that a deal in principle was already in place between the two clubs.

Everton are said to be holding out for as much as £50m for Stones, a £12m increase on the final reported bid from Chelsea last August that wasn't enough to tempt the Toffees into selling so close to the transfer deadline. Barnsley would be due a significant cut due to a sell-on fee that was part of the £3m deal that brought the Yorkshireman from Oakwell in January 2013.

The Blues are themselves being talked about with regard to potential replacements for Stones, with Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly and Juventus's Daniele Rugani both linked in recent days.