Tony Pulis pleased with outcome of Saido Berahino, John Stones transfer sagas

27 September 2015 21:46

Tony Pulis insists West Brom and Everton have proved teams will not be bullied into selling their top talent.

The Baggies boss reckons their refusal to buckle to bids shows they can resist the spending power of bigger clubs.

Albion rejected four bids from Tottenham for Saido Berahino while Everton turned down Chelsea's offers for defender John Stones.

And with the money available to clubs for staying in the Barclays Premier League, Pulis believes clubs are right to dig their heels in until they get an acceptable offer.

"I think the stakes are so high now for every club in terms of keeping Premier League football, that unless it's right it won't happen," he said ahead of his side's Monday night clash with Everton.

"If it's right then everybody has got a value.

"You would have thought that Tottenham would have got Saido at a certain price and you would have thought Chelsea would have got Stones at a certain price so it was nice that it didn't happen, for everybody.

"I just think the value of people and what's going on has changed.

"You can look at Saido but you can look at other deals like (Raheem) Sterling, who was sold.

"You have to look at what you think each lad is worth and you work from there.

"In my opinion the transfer fees 10 years ago were ridiculous so don't even ask me what I think of them now.

"The top clubs want the best players, they will spend to get the best players and the market value will keep going up because the money is getting bigger and bigger, especially in the Premier League."

West Brom, though, did beat Everton to the signing of Jonny Evans from Manchester United in the summer with the Northern Ireland international helping them to successive clean sheets.

He will return, along with Berahino, Salomon Rondon and Darren Fletcher, after being rested for last week's 3-0 Capital One Cup defeat at Norwich.

"Jonny has played a couple of games for us and he has already shown the qualities that we thought he had," Pulis said.

"He's come from a club with a winning mentality and a club that's run properly.

"There are different standards and different levels and Everton are in that group just below the top so it was lovely to get Jonny."

Source: PA