PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!

Next!

As I have said all along; Lescott will definitely be going to City (either now or in the window) so it is all about getting the best deal for the club.

I haven't seen enough of Onouha to comment but know I trust Moyes completely. Johnson could be the one Moyes really wants. With City though you may as well just get as much cash as possible. All their youth players are going to devalue this season anyway. Make a move for Johnson and Onouha next season when they are well and truly pissed off.

I assume Suzy, you get your info about Lescott "definitely going" from Moyes’s comments of him not selling any first-teamers? I also doubt Moyes wants such an injury prone player in Johnson.

I guess the £20million will be good compensation. Onuoha is a good player but still to prove himself top notch and of course Lescott’s prowess in opponents' penalty areas may be missed. However, nothing is written in stone yet.

I just get my info from common sense. I said the same thing about Rooney before he left — which was also met with the same response. Trust me, it is going to happen. It’s inevitable.

I am not sure if he will leave before the summer but he will definitely be leaving. What do you expect Moyes to be saying, Alan?

Let’s see what we get and talk about it then. There are so many false statements in the press. I have a friend at Arsenal (yes, I know!) but he says they have been linked with 16 players since May and to his (maybe limited) knowledge (he is in the financial area) they have only made 1 offer and 2 enquiries.

Minimum of £25 million plus Onuha and City pay the sell-on clause to Wolves. John Terry has just turned down City so the Sheik is going to have to get City to the top 4 in two stages if he even manages it.

Stage one with the best players from clubs similar to ourselves and Villa. Then when they get European football they may be able to start attracting genuine world class players. These players will probably just use City as a lever to get their own clubs to increase wages though.

Mind you, if City have just been blown out by John Terry, all of a sudden, the best centre half in the country who they have left to buy is Lescott. Our hand is even stronger now. If City pay too much for Lescott then with the money we kick on and shut the door for one of the Europa spots next year. Thats not what they want so I reckon they will keep the bid as small as possible but increase the wages to Lescott to try and get him to spit the dummy out and force a sale that way.

All is not going to plan at Middle Eastlands which is nice.

Now that Terry isn’t going to City then i think its less likely that Lescott will too, as i think he was more relishing playing with Terry than actually playing for City.

Also to go back to the Onouha thing, well basically if he was good enough, then City wouldn’t be trying to sign Terry and Lescott.

If we were to sign him i would be disappointed as i would prefer to see one of our own younger players instead, such as Rodwell or Mustafi.

Ideally we still need a RB, CB, LB, DM, CM, AM, RW, LW, some of these as cover and others as first teamers, would prefer to get the right hand side sorted first then work on cover, and please can we sign players whose preferred position is the position we will play them in

It’s just you say it with such certainty Suzy, when you and all of us don’t know what’s going on inside Goodison. I would expect Moyes to say he’s not selling anyone if he doesn’t intend to actually sell anyone. Moyes never made that comment about Rooney. Moyes will be well aware of the fact that he will have gone against his word if he sells Lescott now. If it was such a nailed on certainty why has this deal not happened yet? It may be a probability but it is not a certainty.

"Ideally we still need a RB, CB, LB, DM, CM, AM, RW, LW"

First of all we clearly don’t need all those positions filling. If we did there would be so many new faces it would disrupt the team balance. I think we have fairly decent youth cover for many of those positions too.

You get what you pay for: assuming you get half decent ’reserve’ players in the £3m region, thats £24m!

£24m on 8 shit players to pad out the squad is far from ideal.

I’d also accept £18m from City for Lescott. The longer we negotiate a few extra quid, the less time we have to replace him with. There’s a fine balance between time and money and I’d say if we’re gonna cash in we need to do it soon. Waiting until a few days before the start of the season with £20m is pretty much useless, £18 now with plenty of time to find a replacement is more wise.

Now Terry has blew them out we’re in a stronger position, and I still think selling your best players to rivals is a recipe for disaster.

Lescott is big, strong, quick, versatile and even scores goals! Who would replace him Onouha? I don’t think so, anybody who watched the u21 tournament or seen city last year will know he’s nowhere near good enough to come in and replace JL. Gary Cahill, Steven Taylor, Bassong, Wheater are decent but wouldn’t be an improvement on Lescott.

If we do sell him, squeeze them for what we can, the soft cunts paid 12 million for Bellamy!

And by the way, Mark Hughes did an interview about April saying they feared for Michael Johnsons career after he repeatedly broke down on the comeback trail, so forget him.

As Suzy says, it’s common sense.

Lescott is gone and the club will get the best possible price.

Theres a game being played at the moment and they will eventually agree a price (if they haven’t already).

A club in our finanical predicament doesn’t knock back bids of £20 million for defenders bought for a quarter of that. "Watch this space" !

I’m actually becoming less convinced that Lescott would leave this season, especially if Moyes has stated that he already needs central defense and left back depth, and also now that he may have insisted one of City’s better young players be a part of they deal. It forces Hughes to reassess a little - is he willing to part with his prized asset to get our prized assed? If Lescott leaves, it won’t be until next summer after the World Cup. I’m actually more concerned about Pinnear leaving now - just seem a little unsettled with him.

Alan,
Moyes always stated they he did not want to sell Rooney and he saw him as part of the future of EFC. He then very cleverly, but predictably, came out to the press and announced that Newcastle have made a £20m bid which was instantly rejected (EFC fans think ’great we are not selling him’ interested managers think ’ok we have to offer £20m plus’. Its just the way it works.
Of course Lescott is going to leave. Beleive me i do not like saying it and i would love him to stay but it is just not going to happen.
I am not sure when it will happen but he certainly wont be an Everton player for the 2010/11 season.

To answer your question, there are lots of reasons;
Not many transfers have happened yet.
Terry was clearly his first choice (who would have left had he not been England Captain and its the year before a world cup)
Moyes will have been holding out for Terry to say FO, thus increasing City’s demands.
Moyes will be wanting Lescott to make the first move ala Rooney.
Moyes simply does not want to sell him (in an ideal world).
Moyes will want a replacement in place prior to accepting any offer.
there are lots of reasons why it happened already and like i say i am not sure if it will happen before the start of the season. All i am saying is that he will be leaving before teh start of next season.

Alan,
Moyes always stated they he did not want to sell Rooney and he saw him as part of the future of EFC. He then very cleverly, but predictably, came out to the press and announced that Newcastle have made a £20m bid which was instantly rejected (EFC fans think ’great we are not selling him’ interested managers think ’ok we have to offer £20m plus’. Its just the way it works.
Of course Lescott is going to leave. Beleive me i do not like saying it and i would love him to stay but it is just not going to happen.
I am not sure when it will happen but he certainly wont be an Everton player for the 2010/11 season.

To answer your question, there are lots of reasons;
Not many transfers have happened yet.
Terry was clearly his first choice (who would have left had he not been England Captain and its the year before a world cup)
Moyes will have been holding out for Terry to say FO, thus increasing City’s demands.
Moyes will be wanting Lescott to make the first move ala Rooney.
Moyes simply does not want to sell him (in an ideal world).
Moyes will want a replacement in place prior to accepting any offer.
there are lots of reasons why it happened already and like i say i am not sure if it will happen before the start of the season. All i am saying is that he will be leaving before teh start of next season.

Of course I make a Pinnear comment which was one, off the thread and two, he has just stated that he is happy at the club and wants to play CL football at Everton. There could be some strength in his words - if Moyes sells Lescott, what is the cause and effect upon the current team? It might be irreperable.

Moyes is as competitive as anyone and he wants to win trophies. You don’t do that buy selling off one of the best defenders in the PL. If anything, maybe the comments made by Cahill, Arteta, Pinnear, Baines, etc will light a fire under someone’s a$$ to make some moves in the transfer market - the club’s ambition matches the player’s.

Every player has his price, If City dont come up with Evertons valuation of Lescot - + a few million more because they are city - he will be going nowhere and the people talking "common sense " will never mention it again
If however City do meet Evertons asking price, he’ll be on his bike . . . .and the people talking "common sense" will say I told you so

Common sense innit

I would tell man City to do one. Lescott is one of, if not the best up and coming English centre back and it would cost us almost 10 or 15 million just to sign anyone anywhere near good enough to replace him. So in the scheme of things is it really worth selling him and unbalancing such a mean defence to make a profit of around 5 million once we’ve signed a replacement.

Lescott gives us a nice balance to our defence as he is a naturally left sided centre back and all these centre backs we’ve been linked with e.g. Onouha, Richards etc aren’t and as for Upson he’s overrated so we would get ripped off and he’s not exactly one for the future. However, if Lescott wants to leave and get paid a wedge and not play in europe next season let him if we get the right price i.e. atleast 20 million.

Man City’s defenders from last year were utter crap! Maybe thats only collectivley, but I doubt it. Hughes is only making any of them out to be great so that it bumps their price up and takes more off what they have to cough up for Lescott! 55 goals they conceded last season, and that was with most of the time, 2 DM’s in Kompany and De Jong playing in front of them!!

I'm a bit torn over this one myself.

On one hand, I think a deal for £20 million plus a decent youngster like Onouha or even Richards is too good to turn down. However, on the other hand, there is a part of me that wants us to stand up to City and tell them to get stuffed. It does send out a bad sign to clubs like ourselves and our immediate rivals such as Villa, Spurs etc if City can come and poach our best players.

I'd like to think it's up to Moyes, I'd hate to see him sold without Moyes’s blessing. In fact if this did happen, I wouldn't blame Moyes for jumping ship.

I tell you one thing though, in my opinion, Joleon's silence on the matter is deafening.

Why strengthen City even more by selling Lescott to one of our main challengers.

It might make economic sense but when did economic sense come into football.

Keep Lescott under all circumstances and keep the team spirit high.

If we cannot afford one decent player this Summer why make the squad the scapegoats for Kenwright’s inadequacies.

I am in total agreement with Jay Harris, I’d rather keep Lescott and sign nobody which seems likely anyway than sell him and buy inferior players. This sends out the wrong message to the rest of the squad. If we sell we might as well tell players come to us we’ll make you good, we wont win anything and just finish out of the CL places but you will get signed up by a team with the ambition to become a CL team if not a top 4 side. Keep Lescott at all costs

I too was impressed by Richards & Onuoha until last season when Richards was rubbish and together in the centre of defence for England were torn apart by Germany & Swedan U21’s. God knows what Torres, Drogba & Arshavin etc would do to them.

I don’t see where the question arises...we would have option to sell at that price.

Thats the sad reality...and holding out as a stance of moral indignation - we be counter-productive.

It’s a simple matter of weighing up the pro’s and con’s...and at 20mill Plus Onuoha - it always comes out on the pro’s - whatever way I slice it.

Principles are nice if you can afford them....

I’m sober, honest.

If i was Moyes, i would be licking my lips.. how about 20m + Richards?

Or - 20m onouha and Johnson .

Richards, johnson and onouha?

Also we could throw in someone like Evans aswell ....

I find it bemusing that people are willing to entertain bids of £18mil for Lescott.

Look at the market people. We’re not in a position in which we have to sell. Look how much money City have. He’s English. He’s versatile. And he’s a match winner.

As far as I’m concerned, it would be madness - looking at the current climate - not to get an astronomical amount for Lescott (at least £25mil).

That said, of course, I’d rather keep him.

Right, okay Suzy, just because you called the Rooney transfer which was blatantly obvious and he’d submitted a transfer request, you’re now the oracle on all future tranfers? There is nowhere near that much certainty over this Lescott transfer saga. I honestly do not think Moyes wants to sell him yet. It disrupts all his plans and he knows full well BK won’t let him have all the money to re-invest in the team. So unless Lescott submits a transfer request this certainty of him leaving that some people are suggesting doesn’t exist. At the moment it is only a possibility he’ll leave.

What I don’t understand is the press have been shown up this summer for publishing absolute bullshit with regards to transfers yet so many people are willing to believe what is being written about Lescott.

Kinda nonplused about the transfers thing... You’re right about it being quiet on Toffeeweb though, it’s so feckin quiet I started getting into Baseball last night, this can’t be a good thing, did anyone see that fella the other night threw a perfect game.. or something.. honestly, I’m greatful for total and utter fantasy right now, someone tell me that City are gonna bid 30 mil for a defender I’d rather see at left back and I might be happy

Nice backtracking there Suzy, first he’s going now, then maybe in the window, now he’ll defo be gone by start of next season! Next it’ll be "Lescott will not be at Everton forever - that is a certainty"

Fuck City, they are gonna get desperate cos they’ve got 4 good strikers, 4 good midfielders and fuck all else. If we sell for anything under 30mill, we’re fools, and if he goes regardless, he’s a fool.

I would bite their hand off at £20million + Onouha.

Lescott has flourished under Moyes’s tutelage and tactics.

I’m willing to bet he would do little better than Richard Dunne if he moves to Middle Eastlands. (Let’s be 100% honest, he hasn’t looked a rock in England colours has he?)

Wouldn’t put it past City to come back to us in a couple of years time with an offer of £20million + Lescott for Onouha.

I would just urge all parties to get a bloody move on.

I’m wondering about a few points raised on this thread. Lescott’s market value - some feel 15-20 million is too low. I think what may keep his value at this level is the question mark over his knees. Remember how we haggled Wolves down over the knee question mark?

The issue of money plus players - all very well, but Moyes has publically stated that we need cover in defence. Selling a guy that can cover two positions strikes me as counter productive. I’m sure Moyes sees it that way. You may point to the possibility of getting Onouha and maybe Richards in - problem (partly solved), but what if Moyes just doesn’t fancy them? We then have the problem of finding a replacement for Lescott and the cover that has already been identified as a need.

It would be ok, we would have £20 million to spend. Um, perhaps not, I wouldn’t stake my house on Moyes seeing all the money!

More questions than answers I’m afraid...

Some of us are on about selling Lescott and getting an under 21 player in exchange. We are talking about an england international that has scored 10 plus goals in the last few seasons.
Where do we think we are going to find a replacement to match that?

Alan,

Unfortunately you are wrong again - please refer to you previous post where you bring up the Rooney transfer and state that Moyes never said anything like that at the time - completely incorrect - that is exactly what he was saying.
I have never said that Moyes wants to sell him. I think he will reluctantly sell him.

One final question for you Alan - call it an olive branch if you like;
When was the last time the club actively came out and officially stated we have rejected a bid for a player we did not, soon after, sell?

Jimmy Saville, now then, now then (sorry). Lescott will never be a leader, he’s a great defender I know. But in my opinion when he’s played for England or Everton, he seems to be second in command; Jags and Terry seem to be telling him where to be and what to do. What do you think? So for Terry to pledge his future to Chelsea do you think Hughes will pursue Lescott?

I’ll give Moyes a Jimmy I’ll Fix Badge if he can keep hold of Lescott!

Sorry Suzy, but try Pienaar last year from a Russian outfit Kazaan or something? Also Baines had a bid from Sunderland when he couldn't displace Lescott, we also turned that down.

My own opinion is and always has been, it's all down to Lescott. If he decides (for whatever reason!) he wants to go then we negotiate a deal until then it's not happening.

So all you blag psychics and liars who ’know for certain’, either back it up with proof or save it.

John,

I don’t recall any official bids for those players.

Whenever our players have constant paper links - there is usual pretty quick denial from the player - via the club. This was especially evident whenever Arteta’s name was all over Spanish papers..

Interesting that the same MO hasn’t been followed by Lescott. Too many similarities with the Rooney saga. Let's hope that whatever happens it doesn’t get to the transfer request stage!

I don’t expect anybody would recall an official bid, unless you were privy to the club’s internal affairs, or unless it had been leaked to the media.

None of us know how often clubs make contact regarding the acquisition our players, and I think we would all be suprised at how frequently it happens. Especially at a club such as ours, where it is common knowledge we are skint, and also common knowledge that we have some players that would not look out of place playing regular CL football.

That said, I think JL will be allowed to leave for around 20 million, provided Moyes can find a suitable replacement. I think its utter bullshit to say it is a done deal considering Jags is out for the start of the season, which would only leave Yobo available. The deal will only be done, when the manager has a guaranteed replacement who is capable of doing the job. If he finds nobody, he wont leave. Its as simple as that.

But one thing I would like to point out, is the success of our manager. He has taken 2 championship Centre Halfs, and developed them into 20 million pound England International’s in a few seasons. He really does not get enough credit for this. So with this in mind, I would suggest that it is not too big a concern even if JL leaves. Moyes is more than capable of identifying and developing a good Centre Half.

If his ability to develop attacking players was anywhere near his defensive coaching abilities, then he would simply be one of the best managers in the world without doubt. And with the addition of the right players, I am sure he would feel more confident about going forward than he currently does. For me, the manager has the attacking/defensive balance spot on for the team he has right now. But one other thing I wanted to comment on:

"Terry was clearly his (Hughes I presume) first choice (who would have left had he not been England Captain and its the year before a world cup)"

What on earth does this have to do with Terry not wanting to go to City? Are you suggesting he wont get a game ahead of Dunne, and limit his England chances? I feel completely the opposite. JT would shine at City, not a doubt in my mind. If they did sign him, that would make City are truly worrying competition for the 4th place. Personally, I would prefer that City dont sign anyone at Centre Half, but that seems wishful thinking. If it came to it, I would rather Lescott goes there rather than JT. At least we would get some financial benefit from it, and I dont know if Lescott would be so effective in that side as he is for us. The dressing room at Eastlands will be like backstage of a catwalk with all those ego’s floating around.

The guy had a nightmare start to last season, he didnt start playing until ten games in, lets hope if he stays, he gets out of the traps a bit sharper this time, otherwise there’ll be plenty on here whining that we should have taken the dosh when we had the chance

An area not covered here! Our target this season is Top 4, 5th is a minimum, Arsenal are the team most likely to be dispossesed, surely apart from not wanting to lose Lescott we don't want to help one of our main rivals for that position.

City have bought some good players and are only lacking in defense, I still think Hughes gelling them together is a BIG ask but they will be a rival to us. That said, £25mill + Petrov would be good for us.

Suzy, do you work for the club then with all your inside knowledge?

I still stick to the fact that Rooney handed in a transfer request and that is why he was sold. I don’t even think Man U wanted to sign him at that stage because he was so expensive following the Euros. It was only because of the bid from Newcastle that they had to act. I suspect this was that arse Stretford encouraging Newcastle to provoke a bid from Man U. Moyes never really spoke out about Rooney, it was Billy Bullshit who was coming out with all the "wouldn’t sell him for £50 million" crap.

Moyes has said he won’t be selling any first team players and I believe him unless Lescott actually demands the transfer. It is only then that you can start talking with absolute certainty that he is on his way. Remember all this crap in the papers that’s making you think this is a certainty is hacks trying to sell papers. There have been no direct quotes from anyone except the one about Moyes not selling any first team players. Although we are skint from a point of view of investing in the team we are not in such a perilous situation where we have to sell players. This transfer of Lescott will depend on him handing in a transfer request.

Alan, my friend, i offered you an olive branch only for you to slide down it further into the depths of utter bewilderment. To be fair, if you re-read your last post you will realise you have added a taste of irony to those olives.

Be patient my friend. Be patient.

Suzy ;-)

Ok guys its all getting a bit much, we are all on the same time.

At the end of the day i think Lescott was 50/50 about leaving but then clapped eyes on our shit new away kit and he is off to city!!! lol

The difference between Rooney and Lescott is that Man U could offer Rooney guaranteed CL footy and a realistic chance of winning loads every season. City cannot offer that – yet.

City can offer Roger a POSSIBILITY of CL footy in a season or two and as much money as he can eat – and also a dressing room full of prima donnas who aren’t the most welcoming (ask Jo).

We can offer Roger European footy (this season at least), a friendlier dressing room (ask Jo again), guaranteed first team action and a shed load of money – to us normal folks anyway.

If Roger doesn’t ask for a move then we should resist all bids! Selling would make a statement that we are back to being a selling club and I think we would find Arteta and Peanuts following him out of the door in the not too distant future. It would also leave us with one fit centre-half at the start of the season and come January, Joey will be off to the ACN for a month. It’s not good saying “use the cash to buy a replacement” – if there was a ready replacement out there – why don’t City go and buy him instead? The stories are that they think that he is good enough to join their revolution – not Mat Upson, Gary Cahill, David Wheater, Steven Taylor etc . . . if these guys aren’t good enough for City, they should not be good enough for us! Although I think Cahill did would be my choice if it came down to it.

If Roger asks for a move then we’re stuffed and so we should get as much as possible. IMO this should be £25m + Onouha. Not Johnson who makes James Vaughan look like Mr Indestructible. Not Richards who is another Vic.

I’d like to think that Roger will give us at least one more year to make the final leap into the top 4. I think that Arsenal could be vulnerable and if our injured players make full and speedy recoveries then we could push for 4th with some luck.

Suzy, you have said with absolute certainty that Lescott is going, have you not?

I have asked where you’ve got that info from and you’ve said "it’s just common sense" because it reminds you of the Rooney saga.

This is different because Lescott has not handed in a transfer request and Moyes has said that he won’t be selling any first team players. My query to you is how you know Lescott is definitely going? Because all I’ve seen is a well below value bid which was rejected by Everton and a load of shite then written in the papers. The only bewilderment I have is with your absolute certainty that Lescott is going. Beyond your common sense do you know something that the rest of us don’t? I still say the only way he’s going is with a transfer request so do you know if Lescott has done this?

I have a theory.
Lescott will unfortunately go to Manchester........................(wait for it)........................United.
The reasoning behind my mad theory is this.



1) Ferguson is severely pissed off with Shitty at present. He’s simmering over the Tevez affair and the goading by City fans. It’s not like him to bite.

2) Ferdinand is becoming too injury prone and Vidic may move on for personal reasons (missus can’t settle in the UK or something like that).

3)AF has got a whole load of cash from the Ronaldo sale burning a hole in his pocket and so he’s got a plan.

During August he’s going to watch from the sidelines as Shitty come back to us with another offer in the region of £20M. Once again DM and the Everton board will reject it but City will pick up on a lose comment from our side saying that Lescott is worth more than that – something in the region of £25M. Shitty will then retort with their usual piece of PC dribble with Sparky saying they’re not prepared to pay over the odds for a player (“just because its Manchester City bla bla bla….”) Then, as the clock ticks closer to midnight on 31/8 Ferguson will spring into action and do a “Berbatov” on Shitty and do a deal with Moyes and Everton at £25M or £20M + a player and Lescott will justify the move by saying he’ll be playing Champions league football (something Shitty can’t offer him) and thus improve his chances of getting in the world cup squad.

I don’t want this to happen, I don’t want Lescott to go but as you all know, anything can happen in the silly season and all the little bits of the jigsaw are there to be put together so don’t be surprised.

Alan,

Patience my friend. Patience.

Suzy ;-)

Suzy & Alan - go get a room - there is an obvious attraction between you two it’s perhaps time to admit it and take leave of toffeeweb and retire to a more intimate social networking site.

For the record - Lescott surely cannot honestly turn around and tell his wife that he is going to continue to play for us for half the money on offer at City can he?

If he does I would be amazed - and to be honest kind of wierdly dissapointed - as was kind of looking forward to see what DM would do with the funds.

Steve, Do you really believe BK would give all of the alleged £20 million to Moyes, We’d sign 2 players for about £10 million then say nobody else is available so we’ll wait until January. Then come January it’ll be no one is selling players in the window so we’ll hold out until next summer and get them in early. Then it’ll start all over again and the money will have vanished.

If a business is struggling for cash is offered the chance to sell one of its assets for 4-5 times what they paid for it as well as a replacement, what would it do? It amazes me how naïve some people are and cling on to the hope that we wouldn’t sell our players at any price and how dare other clubs have the cheek. Its business and the club will find it too good to turn down.

If we do sell JL, or anyone else, to City at the moment, I would hope we put in a hefty sell on-clause as I can see Eastlands becoming an ever-expanding and rapidly moving revolving door over the next few years. Personally, i’d like us to wait, they’re moneys not likely to run-out anytime soon, and with a decent World Cup, JLs value can only increase, as can his admirers. $30M to Chelski next summer anyone!