Mourinho keeps teasing Everton over reaction to Stones bid

Roberto Martinez should know better by now. He's been around long enough to know exactly what happens when you complain about something Jose Mourinho says to the media. That's simply an invitation for journalists to continue to ask Mourinho about the subject, and the Portuguese tactician has never been one to avoid making other managers crabby.

On Tuesday, Mourinho was asked once again about Chelsea's pursuit of Everton defender John Stones, and the extraordinary price tag that the Blues could be forced to pay to acquire the England-capped 21-year old. Mourinho had the following to say about the situation:

‘That is the market. And you only pay it if you want. If you don’t want to pay it, don’t pay. It’s as simple as that. The market has no rules or limits from season to season. And not even the introduction of a Financial Fair Play rules is able to control the market. The market is where it is and it’s up to the clubs to decide yes or no. For ourselves there are certain rules.'

‘It’s a good market. That is why smaller other clubs if they have interesting young English players they use that in the right way for them. I don’t even criticize them. They play the market for themselves. And if the big clubs don’t want to go over certain limits, they have to make a decision. And that is maybe why the top clubs are not full of young English players. But that is the market.’

Mourinho doesn't rule out a massive bid for the defender, but it doesn't sound as if he's overly enthusiastic about paying a ridiculous amount of money either. I'd be paying attention to these remarks if I was Greg Dyke, however, as the Blues' manager points out an obvious downside of artificially increasing the value of decent English talent, as his idiotic roster restriction proposal would do.

Regardless, Roberto Martinez seems to have given the press something to ask Mourinho about, so I'd expect Jose to keep talking about Stones until the transfer widow shuts, or until Everton cave in ad sell the player to the Blues. Sorry, Bob. In the future, it might be best to avoid waking the dragon.