Jose Mourinho would do well to renew the interest he showed in Everton and England defender John Stones as Chelsea manager at Manchester United, according to Gary Pallister.
Mourinho made Stones his number one defensive target at Chelsea last summer but despite putting in a number of bids, Everton dug their heels in and refused to sell the 22-year-old.
Manchester United are thought to be in the market for a new centre-back ahead of Mourinho's debut season at the helm, with Villarreal's Eric Bailly being strongly linked with a switch to Old Trafford.
Pallister, a former Red Devils defender, expects United to spend big on a new defender this summer and hopes that man is Stones.
"He's a young kid but I like what I see of him. There's not many better judges than Jose Mourinho," Pallister told The Sun.
"If he bid £40million for him [with Chelsea last season], like he did last summer, then you know the kid is an exciting talent. He's a player I'm sure he will look to bring into Old Trafford.
"It wouldn't be surprising to see Jose go out and spend big on a centre-half."
Former Barnsley man Stones is one of the most highly-rated young defenders around and is thought to have Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola amongst his admirers.
Stones has, however, been under scrutiny for perceived “overplaying” when on the ball this term but Pallister says criticism is just part of the game and expects him to deal with it.
"John has had a tough end to the season and there is a lot of people shooting him down," he said.
"He does take a risk, he's a ball playing centre-half and, up until the latter half of the season, everyone was giving him the plaudits.
"It's great when you get that but you have to deal with the other side of football like now when people are having a pop at you.
"I went through it and I'm sure other players who played in a similar fashion went through it. When you are labelled as this then you're going to make mistakes. He's got to learn to live with that."
- Goal