Everton
manager Roberto Martinez declined to answer questions about the future of
defender John Stones following the club's 3-1 win over Hearts in a
pre-season friendly on Sunday.
Everton have already rejected one bid for Stones, believed to be worth £20m,
from Chelsea this month, with Martinez subsequently claiming the England
international was not for sale.
However, despite Martinez's protestations, the Premier League champions are
believed to be preparing a second offer for Stones, according to Sky
sources.
Martinez, though, was adamant Stones' situation had not changed since the
last time he spoke on the subject, adding he wants to bring in at least more
two more players before the end of the transfer window.
However, that is not dependent on anyone leaving Goodison Park this summer.
"We always try to look for new arrivals and I feel we are looking for two
positions to try to strengthen, but it is a good period to assess the
younger players," he told Sky Sports News HQ.
"It’s always important in the way that we work at our football club, that we
assess our youngsters before we make major decisions. I've been very
impressed with their attitude and levels, and we’ll keep working until the
deadline day to try and be as strong as we can be as a squad.
"At the moment with where we are, we’re trying to have that consistency in
our group. We’ve been working really hard in the last two seasons to do
that, I think we've got a very good balance in experience and young talent
that they already have big roles in the team and we want to maintain that,
and if anything add extra strength to our strong core that we have."
Martinez was also delighted to see striker Romelu Lukaku score a hat-trick
at Tynecastle on Sunday ahead of the new season.
"A striker has to score goals and it’s the best feeling of the world. I
thought Romelu and Arouna [Kone] worked really well with each other and they
got that threat in our attacking play, but I thought the whole performance
was very well balanced," he added.
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