Everton boss Roberto Martinez is proud of the club's transfer policy.

Everton's current tally of 24 goals from open play this term betters any other Premier League club, with 14 of those having been scored by key performers Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley.

Another to excel this term is John Stones, who remained at Goodison Park in the summer when the Everton board were resolute that the defender was not for sale.

Martinez told this week's AGM: “There are two major pillars in our strategy and vision. One is making brave decisions to make sure young talent has a big role at the Club and the second one is having continuity to ensure we can work on a daily basis to build something special.

“Everybody can speak about young players, but the key is how important they are to the team.

“We have got players like Ross Barkley, Romelu Lukaku and John Stones who we knew would benefit from the challenging season we had last year and also the special time we had in Europe.

“Then we have got Brendan Galloway, who is an example of the elite group we have been investing a lot of time in over two years. And there is also Gerard Deulofeu, who we felt was coming home."