Well the cat seems to be out of the bag on this one.
Everton defender John Stones has long been linked with a move to Manchester City – and it appears City boss Pep Guardiola has got his man.
One eagle eyed fan spotted that the England centre half has already been registered in City’s squad for the qualifying round of the Champions League.
UEFA appear to know something the rest of us don't – John Stones is a Manchester City player https://t.co/TjJJvza5j3 pic.twitter.com/EqhYPLQSap
— Back Page Football (@bpfootball) August 9, 2016
And just in case you thought that might have been a cheeky photoshop job, we checked the site, and sure enough, there he is right at the bottom:
And you can see for yourself on Uefa’s website here.Â
At first it was assumed this must have been an error on the part of Uefa, but SportsJOE’s new chief football writer Tony Barrett reports that it is actually the clubs who submit the squad lists.
I'm not sure this is a UEFA error. Squad lists are submitted by participating clubs. https://t.co/0HnOhYVOcj
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarrett) August 9, 2016
And that surely means City have signed the young defender but haven’t announced it yet for some reason.
It’s a curious one, folks, but we’ll keep you posted if this one moves on.
UPDATE
Uefa has now released a statement confirming that John Stones was included in the list they received from City:
“Squad had to be submitted before midnight … that was the squad we received from City.”
So there you have it. Betting has now been suspended on the deal as well, so all we’re waiting for now is the picture of him holding up the scarf.
Stones, 22, has been with Everton since joining from Barnsley in 2013. He is one of the Premier League’s most highly rated young defenders, and Everton fought off a huge bid from Chelsea to take him to Stamford Bridge last summer when Jose Mourinho was still manager there.
It now appears that his old rival Pep Guardiola has succeeded where he failed.
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