Everton manager Roberto Martinez has insisted that the club will not sell prized centre-back John Stones in January, saying that the 'strong' running of the club means that they can choose not to sell their best players.





Stones was at the centre of one of the longest-running transfer saga​s of the summer, with Chelsea doing their level best to entice the 21-year-old away from Goodison Park in the direction of Stamford Bridge.





Jose Mourinho's side openly courted the England defender throughout the transfer window and it appeared that Stones wanted to make the move to the reigning champions, only for Martinez and the Everton board to refuse to cave in to Chelsea's financial pressure in order to keep their star.









Martinez has now said that he's confident of keeping Stones when the transfer window opens once again in January, ​saying: “That is modern football. You don’t fear that situation. What you fear is when you have to sell players to balance the books. That is the real problem as a manager when the chairman or owner of the club says we need to cash in on two or three players. That is not the situation at Everton."





“We have a very strong day to day running of the club. The chairman has been incredible in that respect. Any decision we make is for the benefit of the club and squad going forward. That does not mean we will sell every player or keep every player. We will make the right decisions that ultimately will benefit of the squad.”





The Toffees sit just inside the top half of the Premier League table after a tough set of early fixtures, while Chelsea have had a defensive nightmare to begin the season and lie all the way down in 16th place after a series of embarrassing defeats.



