Although part of me thinks Everton are I the right I can't help thinking that £30k a week for a player the club say is worth in excess of £40m is a pittance (comparatively) and I can't blame Stones for wanting to leave.
Sooner or later a lawyer is going to force through a transfer like this, it's almost inevitable. Look at it dispassionately. He's being offered the chance to play at a far higher level than he is at the moment, Chelsea being a CL team and Everton not even in the Europa league (this isn't a sleight, it's just a statement of fact) he will be on a far higher wage than his, comparatively poor, current wage of £30k (yes, a lot higher than most of ours, but probably not even half the highest wage at Everton) and the compensation on offer is 3900% of his original purchase price, the second highest amount for a defender in the world, but it's not enough. If Everton truly think he's worth that much, why didn't they pay him accordingly? His wage in no way reflects his value,
Ask yourself how you would feel if you were Stones? And don't blah blah about loyalty, he isn't an Evertonian, you bought him from his boyhood club which he left to further his career, and now you're stopping him do that. Challenging something like this in the courts is the next natural step on from the Bosman. I think sooner or later release clauses will be have to be included in every contract. I don't like it, but then I'm not in a trade that I have ten years of doing that could end in one caught stud.
I think he should be allowed to leave, or at least have his wages significantly increased to a level of someone worth £40m, which is higher than any other player at your club. I've never had a problem with West Ham players wanting to leave to further their careers, just the ones who want to do a sideways move for the cash. If people asked themselves what they would do, 99% would do the same as Stones.