I was fishing a bit mentioning race but I do think there's a possible link. I get the impression that white English equals golden boy (Gerrard for example) and black foreigner equals mercenary ( eg Anelka). Everyone else is in between. It's hard to get in words but I do think there's been a subconscious favoritism for a while. And recently social media has bred a new hord of horrible racist trolls. Then add them together to make the new age racist frenzy.
But maybe it's in my head. Might be an interesting project for someone to gather data on.
I think Stones is a good fit for Chelsea and at 40m Everton are getting a great price. More fools them though if they haven't lined up replacements with one week to go.