Stones' impending arrival at Inter Milan will cost the club around €9m overall despite the England defender joining as a free agent, with the move also cooling Inter's interest in Tottenham's Cristian Romero while reopening the door to a fresh push for Liverpool's Curtis Jones.
Although no transfer fee is involved in Stones' move from Manchester City, Inter's parent company Oaktree will still incur costs through the defender's reported two-year deal worth €4m net per season, plus agent commissions, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Stones' arrival fills the gap left in defence by the departures of Francesco Acerbi and Stefan de Vrij, and with that need addressed, Inter's pursuit of Romero has cooled considerably; contact between the two clubs and the Argentine's camp continues, though less frequently than in recent days, and the move looks set to collapse unless valuations on both the fee and the player's wages come down.
A renewed approach for Romero has not been entirely ruled out, particularly in the final days of the window should he find himself frozen out at Tottenham with no adequate offers arriving for the club, but for now Inter's more pressing business lies elsewhere.
That leaves around €40m of Inter's original summer budget still unspent, with head coach Cristian Chivu keen to address the right flank, where neither the disappointing Luis Henrique nor the makeshift experiment of using Andy Diouf out of position convince, alongside a long-standing preference for Jones in central midfield.
Chivu regards the Liverpool midfielder as ideal for his 3-5-2 system, and while contact with Liverpool has been stalled since Inter's opening offer was rejected several weeks ago, talks could resume in the coming days; Inter's valuation of Jones has not changed, and neither, reportedly, has his own openness to a new chapter in Serie A colours.
Should both deals progress, Inter would end the window with a distinctly English flavour to their rebuilt spine, adding two more experienced Premier League figures to a squad already reshaped this summer.