“?New Everton manager Ronald Koeman is open to the idea of Manchester City including Wilfried Bony in the potential deal for defender John Stones, according to “?The Sun.
Pep Guardiola has identified Stones as his primary defensive target after failing to sign Athletic Bilbao’s Aymeric Laporte and Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci.
However, Everton have slapped a massive £50m price tag on the England defender.
As things stand, Manchester City are not willing to pay such a fee with a rumoured £40m being the highest figure the hierarchy at the Etihad are willing to offer.
It is now believed, though, that Everton are willing to negotiate a lower fee with Manchester City should they include Bony into the deal for Stones.
The 2016 Capital One Cup winners signed Bony for £28m from Swansea in January 2015, but the 27-year-old has only managed to score six Premier League goals since and is now valued at £15m.
One team certain to have an eye on the whole situation involving Bony and Stones is Chelsea, who also pursue the England international last summer only to fail in their chase after three unsuccessful bids.
Bony’s potential arrival at Goodison Park may encourage the west London club to intensify their interest in former forward Romelu Lukaku.
Antonio Conte is keen on bringing the Belgium international back to Stamford Bridge, as the rebuilding at Chelsea continues ahead of the new season.
It has been reported that the former Premier League champions have already had an opening £57m bid rejected for Lukaku, but Chelsea are set to go in with another offer believed to be just shy of £70m, while it could also include striker Loic Remy heading in the other direction.
Leave a Reply