The Goodison midfielder revealed how much he is going to miss his good friend and fellow England worldwide following Stones’ £47.5million transfer to City on Tuesday morning.
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Everton is rumored to be ready to replace Stones with Swansea City captain Ashley Williams, although the Swans are keen on not letting go of the Wales worldwide.
‘I’ve seen what’s going on here at the Etihad, it’s an ambitious club with a great manager.
He said: “I hope he can bring out everything in me”.
Stones, who 12 months ago was the subject of four rejected bids from Chelsea, put pen-to-paper on a lucrative six-year contract and has been allotted squad No 24 after becoming the eighth signing of Pep Guardiola’s reign.
The profit from Stones’s sale to City is £45.25m, meaning that Barnsley are entitled to around £6.78m through their sell-on clause – comfortably eclipsing the previous club record fee that they received when Ashley Ward moved to Blackburn Rovers for £4.5m in December 1998.
Stones’s move to the Etihad eclipses the £42 million paid by City to Porto for Eliaquim Mangala in 2014, although the club will hope their latest recruit fares better than the much maligned France defender, who is likely to make way for Stones’s arrival after a wretched two years in Manchester.
“It’s 110 percent the right decision to play under him and I’m so thankful that I’m getting the opportunity to come here and play with the best and improve day in, day out”, he said.
I’ve spoken to a lot of the boys here, like Joe and Raheem, and they wanted me to come.
He is a tall defender with composure, a good technique and is comfortable on the ball – Stones has been compared to former Man United and England center back Rio Ferdinand – but has been criticized by some pundits for his languid style and he made mistakes at Everton last season. “He’s a victor and I think that’s what is going to rub off on everyone”.
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“We want to help John show his quality with us and improve on what he has already achieved”, he said. So I can not wait to start the game. City will face Romanian club FC Steaua București on August 16 at the Arena Națională in Bucharest in the first leg of their playoff round meeting for the said competitions.
