A surprise swap deal that could take John Stones to Manchester City and Wilfried Bony to Goodison Park is on the cards this summer - provided Everton sell Romelu Lukaku, according to reports from The Sun.

The Sky Blues have been chasing the highly rated 22-year-old English defender for a number of months, but now Pep Guardiola is looking to step up his pursuit of Stones, having missed out on signing Athletic Bilbao’s Aymeric Laporte.

The Toffees defender was subject to intense interest from Chelsea last summer as the Blue’s had three offers rejected by Everton, even after the defender himself had handed in a transfer request to leave.

With Chelsea seemingly out of the race for his signature now, however, Man City have emerged as favourites, and a move seems only inevitable considering the drama of last summer.

The proposed deal for Stones is said to be worth around £20m plus the Citizens' out of sorts striker Wilfried Bony, who has struggled to find his form since his January 2015 move from Swansea to the Etihad Stadium.

So, is it a deal Everton should take Guardiola’s new side up on? Here at FFC we certainly think so, and here is why...

Over-rated Stones

Stones

That’s right, I said it. John Stones - despite undoubtedly being talented - is overrated. Don’t get me wrong, the young Englishman has the potential to go on and become a brilliant centre half, however at this moment in time, the hype around him for me is not deserved.

Great on the ball, but positionally frail and prone far too often to a mistake, Stones needs to develop a lot more before he can warrant such a hefty price tag. Everton’s defence with Stones at the heart leaked a dismal 55 goals in the league last season, which is more than any team outside the bottom six.

Bony > Lukaku

Wilfried Bony (centre)

Have I gone insane? Hear me out. Romelu Lukaku is a brilliant striker, and has a proven track record of scoring Premier League goals. There isn’t much more to his game, however.

Bony is equally as capable of scoring goals given the right service, and provides much better link up with the midfield than Lukaku with his excellent hold up play and terrific skill on the ball. The Ivorian hasn’t been given the chance to thrive at City, so it is easy to forget he was the top scorer in the Premier League for the calendar year of 2014 - ahead of Lukaku himself.

Money to Spend

yarmolenko

Not only would Ronald Koeman be inheriting himself a new striker, but also £20m to boot. That is £20m that could be re-invested smartly elsewhere.

Considering the Dutchman has a mammoth task ahead of him this summer to help re-jig and re-build an Everton squad that has a solid foundation but ultimately flattered to deceive - the extra cash could go a long way. £20m is a Andriy Yarmelenko, a Virgil van Dijk or even a Juan Mata.

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Raheem Sterling...

sterling

Do Manchester City not learn? The last time they spent big bucks on a young English talent was the £49m they splashed on Raheem Sterling from Liverpool last summer.

Now while it has only been one season, all together the move hasn’t gone exactly to plan with the winger failing to deliver for the most part and received heavy criticism in the process - especially after his dismal performances for England at EURO 2016. If City won’t understand that English talent is over-priced, then Everton should.

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Attitude

Stones

Having watched Stones play for England on numerous occasions, I for one was less than impressed not only with his performances, but more so his attitude. The youngster does not like being pushed around and told what to do for one minute and was too often caught out of place due to ignoring Gary Cahill or Chris Smalling.

He also has had the same issues at Everton, where he was struggled to develop a solid partnership with either Phil Jagielka or Ramiro Funes Mori because of his 'Wild West' type defending.

Barcelona - who were also interested in signing Stones - allegedly dropped their interest because of his ‘attitude and temperament’ would not allow him to develop in Spain, so I am not the only one to notice.

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