Pain in the Arsenal
Fansided

Arsenal’s John Stones Request

By Ross Kennerley

Manchester City's English defender John Stones warms up ahead of the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north-west England, on July 15, 2020. (Photo by PETER POWELL / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by PETER POWELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester City's English defender John Stones warms up ahead of the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north-west England, on July 15, 2020. (Photo by PETER POWELL / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by PETER POWELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
John Stones, Arsenal
Manchester City’s English defender John Stones (Photo by LAURENCE GRIFFITHS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /

John Stones’ Manchester City Situation

Stones will have just 18 months left on his contract come January and has fallen drastically out of favour at the Etihad Stadium, with Pep Guardiola splashing out over £100m in the last window alone on central defenders.

The 25-year-old cost a cool £47.5m when he joined from Everton in 2016 but has only started 14 Premier League matches since the beginning of the 2019/20 campaign.

A string of high-profile errors – some truly comical – have seen his stock deteriorate rapidly within City sectors. Most telling of all is that Gareth Southgate has long-since stopped selecting him for the England national side – the one person who seemed to have faith in him despite his unfortunate knack of not being very good.

Regarding a fee, he wouldn’t come cheap. Even if it were at a cut-price deal taking into account his recent track record and the length of time remaining on his contract, City won’t want to be too out of pocket after their initial outlay.

Perhaps Arteta is hoping for mates’ rates by dropping a line to his old mentor to see if he can smooth talk his way to a cheaper deal? What’s Spanish for ‘haggle’?

Home/Arsenal News