Chelsea have raised their offer for Everton defender John Stones to £30million but the bid is still not expected to be enough to tempt the Toffees to sell.
The Premier League champions have already seen two attempts to sign the English centre-half knocked back by Goodison Park chief Roberto Martinez.
However, Jose Mourinho’s side have made a poor start to the defence of their crown and billionaire owner Roman Abramovich is prepared to dig deep to correct the slide.
An improved bid for Stones has been sanctioned by the Russian as part of the solution and Chelsea may need to up their offer to as much as £35million to capture the 21-year-old.
John Stones in pictures
Stones is seen as the natural successor to John Terry and the skipper was far from happy at the weekend as he suffered the humiliation of being hauled off midway through the club’s defeat by Manchester City.
Terry had never previously been substituted by the Special One in 177 Premier League appearances but Kurt Zouma was deemed a better option by the Blues boss at half-time at the Eithad.
Chelsea have already made one change to their defensive line-up this summer by replacing the disappointing Filipe Luis with new arrival Baba Rahman.
