‘Big boy’ John focussing on positives as he looks

JOHN Stones is ready to shut out the noise as he bids to win trophies at City.

Club bosses were delighted to sign the defender from Everton for £47.5m last summer but he endured a difficult year in a defence that was too often disfunctional. Pep Guardiola was not afraid to drop the player and publicly challenged him to cut out the mistakes in order to win a place back into the team.

That brought a positive reaction, although the return to fitness of Vincent Kompany was keeping Stones out of the team by the end of the season.

While the England man can’t do anything about the money that City paid for him, his first season at the Etihad has taught him how better to deal with any unwanted attention.

“I’m a big enough lad now to know that I should just get over it and do what I have to do, by getting out on the training pitch and correcting the faults,” he said.

“I think a lot of things can get overlooked and a lot of emphasis is put on the mistakes, rather than the good things. Maybe 60 to 70 per cent of the season is positive, but that’s how football works I guess and it probably happens too much.

“What matters is how I feel and if the manager is happy and my family are happy – that circle are who I should listen to.

“But you grow more knowledgeable during the time you play in the Premier League.