Everton manager Roberto Martinez not bothered about Chelsea interest in John Stones

Everton manager Roberto Martinez says he is unconcerned by the prospect of Chelsea testing the Toffees' resolve with a third bid for defender John Stones.

The Daily Telegraph understands the Premier League champions are plotting a third offer worth £34m ($52.7m) for the England international, after two initial proposals were rejected by the Goodison Park outfit.

But ahead of the opening game of the season against newly promoted Watford, Martinez says Everton's focus is on on-field commitments rather than Chelsea's desires during the remaining weeks of the transfer market.

"All we're focused on is Watford and John is an Everton player and there is nothing else to comment on that in that respect," he told a pre-match press conference according to Sky Sports. "You shouldn't worry about situations that you cannot change or control.

"As I have said at the beginning, when you're not a club who is actively trying to sell players the focus is trying to be as good as we can at the weekend and see how ready we are individually and as a team. Anything else is not something that bothers me at all."

The acrimonious departures of Wayne Rooney, Joleon Lescott and Marouane Fellaini indicate that Everton are likely to play hard ball over any deal for Stones.

Chelsea are set to start the season with just five senior defenders ,having allowed Filipe Luis to rejoin Atletico Madrid, with manager Jose Mourinho ready to play members of his squad out of position to cover for the lack of resources.

Mourinho has refrained from confirming whether Chelsea will submit a third bid for Stones, but Martinez welcomes interest in the star centre-back, which he feels reflects well on Everton.

"It's something that you hope you learn from it and get more mature and those experiences are good experiences," the Spaniard added. "The bad situations that you suffer as a player are when you are injured and when you are not in the team, when you can't reach a certain level and you can't enjoy your football.

"Clearly John is one of the outstanding young talents that we have in the squad and you're going to get that sort of attraction and that interest from the outside. Everything has been handled in a good manner and I understand that is a positive.

"When you have a young talent doing well you have an important role because that is a big difference. Any squad has good young talent, the difference is this young talent having big roles in the team.

"As you see with big players like Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley, John Stones having very important roles in the season you're going to have that interest."