Roberto Martinez angry at Chelsea after John Stones bid made public

Roberto Martinez is keen to keep the highly-rated English defender

Chelsea has been criticised by Everton manager Roberto Martinez after their bid for centre-back John Stones was publicized, according to BBC. The Blues placed a failed £20m bid for the defender recently, following which Mourinho publicly confirmed his interest in the player.

After his side’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in the Barclays Asia Trophy final in Singapore, Roberto Martinez shared a few words with the press about the issue and how much it has annoyed him.

“One thing is clear,” said Martinez. “We pride ourselves in playing a certain way and educating our young players in a manner in which they will always attract attention from elsewhere and that is a footballing compliment.”

“The other side is that another club is making a statement in the press so openly and I don’t think that is the way we would do it at Everton. We wouldn’t speak about a player at another club.”

The boss seemed adamant about not selling his most promising defender, and reiterated the point by saying: “And there is no issue from our point of view. John Stones is an Everton player full stop. We are not a selling club in that respect. There is nothing to speak to John about. I always speak with players but there is nothing to comment about.”

Mourinho responded to Martinez’s comments

Jose Mourinho led Chelsea to a domestic double last season

Mourinho made no apologies to Martinez about publicising the bid for the England international, despite Roberto’s comments. Currently in Montreal to conduct Chelsea’s pre-season training camp, the Portuguese believes that Everton has not ruled out selling their defender, and only rejected their initial bid so that Chelsea could come in with a better one.

Speaking with Sky Sports, he said: “At the moment they say: ‘We don’t accept this bid’. They don’t say: ‘We don’t accept bids; any bids’. While they say, ‘We don’t accept this bid’ until September 1, we can improve the bid: £1 more, £10 more, we can improve the bid.”

“If one day Roberto Martinez or the chairman says: ‘He’s not for sale; we don’t accept any bid’, game over. So during this process, it’s clear, we don’t deny we made a bid for Stones. It means we are trying to buy.” he added.

The manager was also baffled by suggestions from the Toffees, which say that the Stones bid was sabotaging their pre-season preparations in some way.

“We made a bid, we can make it — it’s an open market until September 1. We didn’t make an offer on September 2 or in March or two days before we play against Everton.”

“We are making the bid in the period we have to make it, which is the open market. So until September 1, every single one of our players can get a bid and we can make bids for players from other clubs.”

Chelsea are expected to increase their offer to £26m, as they try to sign a player who has been ear-marked by the coach as John Terry’s long-term successor at the club. Stones is currently on a weekly wage of £30,000 at Everton, and has four years left on his contract.