John Stones to Chelsea: Everton's Roberto Martinez sends early warning to Jose Mourinho over January transfer bid

Chelsea look ready to resume their interest in Stones after seeing a final offer of £38m rejected in the summer

Everton defender John Stones is wanted by Chelsea (Getty Images)

Everton are ready to rebuff any fresh approach from Chelsea should they try and sign defender John Stones during the January transfer window, with manager Roberto Martinez stressing that their won’t be a single player exit during the mid-season transfer window.

Chelsea saw a number of repeated bids for Stones, the most expensive of which totalled at £38m, rejected in the summer, and despite the player handing in a transfer request he has continued to play for the Toffees this season.

Martinez personally blocked Stones’s exit during the summer transfer window and he has sent out an early warning to his Chelsea counterpart Jose Mourinho should he be harbouring hopes of landing the young England defender in January.

“None of our best players will be leaving in January – I'm not worried at all,” Martinez said.

“We are not in a position where we have to make financial decisions or of worrying about balancing the books, and our only concern is about continuity, and developing the best we can.

“Our focus is on being as strong as we can together and keeping the continuity.”

Stones has continued to impress this season to add to his emergence as an Everton first-team regular last term, but that form has grabbed the attention of Chelsea who see the 21-year-old as the long-term successor to captain John Terry.

Chelsea’s defence has proven to be fragile this season, with Terry dropped early in the campaign before seeing his centre-back partner rotated between Kurt Zouma and Gary Cahill. Stones partnered Cahill at the back for England in the week as they kept a clean sheet against France, and Mourinho is determined to add strength to his Chelsea squad in January in a bid to save his job after a disastrous start to their Premier League title defence.

It’s believed that Chelsea will need to up their interest to the £40m mark, and they could attempt to test the Merseyside club’s resolve with a higher bid should an initial offer be rejected.

Martinez did not attribute his declaration of intent over just Stones though. Both striker Romelu Lukaku and right-back Seamus Coleman have been linked with moves to a number of different clubs, with Italian champions Juventus said to be very keen on the Belgian forward.

However, Martinez insisted that he has formed a young and talented squad in order to help them build, not to offload them as soon as a bigger club comes calling.

“From our point of view the window in January is trying to see if there is anything that can help the squad you have in place – you don't look at this window as being really important,” Martinez added.

“We don’t look on it as a window to be really involved whether that’s buying or selling, it’s more a matter of continuity. It’s about developing competition for places between the ones we already have.”

One option being linked with Everton is the Netherlands defender Ron Vlaar. The 30-year-old left Aston Villa in the summer after running down his contract, and he would be available to Martinez on a free transfer should he wish to sign him.