The Mail Bag
Gary Speed — deja vu
Comments (24)
Anyone remember when that "traitor" Gary Speed didn't show up to play and thus forced the club into selling him? Remeber what he said about it all? The club sold him because they needed the money and then publicly stitched him up to be the villain? Ring any bells?
Moyes claims he isn't going to sell Lescott and yet he said the same thing about Johnson last summer and Rooney a few years back before selling but ostensibly to fund team re-building. Moyes complains that City aren't showing Everton respect with their pursuit of Lescott but stops short of saying "Don't call us — we'll call you," and actually suggests Hughes should call him for a chat. What would they chat about?
"Hey Moyes, I want to buy Lescott."
"He's not for sale"
Wouldn't be much point in that call unless Moyes is actually hiding something — like for example the terms he would agree to.
It's also interesting that the Kenwright mouthpiece has been saying for the last 2 weeks that Everton won't sell Lescott "Unless he demands a move." The last time I checked, he was under contract, so is in no position to demand a move unless Kenwright is using the Echo to drop a hint to Lescott in the same way Moyes is using the tabloids to incite a phone call from Hughes, with the end result that Everton get cash to buy 3 or 4 medicore talents whilst City and Lescott look like the villains of the piece.
If we had any money, we'd have spent it buy now but, other than the Naughton deal, which we milked for all its worth, we haven't spent a dime. The Echo crucified Sheff Utd for doing what every club should do — looking out for their own best interests — but to me it smacked of a publicity stunt to make it seem like we had money ahead of the Lescott sale, just as last year good old Bill pulled some money out of thin air to buy Fellaini that supposedly had nothing to do with the money we received for McFadden, Beattie and Johnson.
Kieran Kinsella, Posted 03/08/2009 at 23:24:09
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
1 Posted 04/08/2009 at 06:30:22
Steven Defour to sign this week - EFC to announce
Phillipe Senderos to be announced also
Lescott departure to be announced
EFC to try to find another full back
Rasmus Elm to sign
The fans breathe a huge sigh of relief...
2 Posted 04/08/2009 at 07:11:26
Just a week or two ago he was telling us all in his column to just wait, Naughton WILL be an Everton player soon. Last night he was at it again telling us all Lescott was going nowhere.
Now Moyes may dig his feet in and we may end up with egg on our faces but what's the point? Get as much as possible and sod him, no central defender is worth that much and we have more than recovered from far better players whom we sold for far less cash in the past.
It's bad enough being an internet addict in pre season, trawling news now every five minutes and SSN, kidding yourself we just may make a big signing (even my wife is onto me, calling me a saddo) but can we at least have a good local reporter instead of a Kenwright clone?
3 Posted 04/08/2009 at 11:44:10
Are you trying to find everything bad about Everton, and that it is all Everton to blame and everyone else outside of our club are goody-two-shoes?
If you are a true blue, why don’t you try and support them and not try to find out things bad about the club.
4 Posted 04/08/2009 at 11:42:03
As for the sale of Lescott... I am hoping that as Davey is a man of honesty and integrity as we all know, that the reports on Sky Sports Transfer Centre is correct in that Davey told Joleon yesterday afternoon that he was going nowhere.
5 Posted 04/08/2009 at 07:47:03
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article6737748.ece
The Times are usually quite accurate. I did hear over the weekend that someone had talked to Kenwright after the Coventry game and was told that City had approached Lescott illegally and offered him £100,000 a week. This is conjecture of course.
A few weeks ago I thought if they offered £20 million I'd be happy with that. I'd now see how much we can get for him. Anything over £20 milion in my eyes is great business.
If (and when) he does go, I wont bear the lad a grudge but he will be making the worst footballing choice of his career.
6 Posted 04/08/2009 at 11:52:29
Here it what I think will happen.
Steven Defour to sign this week - red s..te to announce
Phillipe Senderos to sign, yes
Lescott departure to be announced, on deadline day
EFC to try to find another full back - maybe on deadline day.
Rasmus Elm. If he needs more time to consider move to us while he waits for other offers to come in, let him get stuffed.
The fans breathe a huge sigh of relief?????
7 Posted 04/08/2009 at 06:15:49
8 Posted 04/08/2009 at 12:00:09
9 Posted 04/08/2009 at 11:58:15
The club, like any other, uses the media to create the spin they want or indeed to try and push a price up and get the maximum possibel return. In this case with Lescott/City.
It all comes down to business and money.
On a seperate note, no one can really blame Lescott for going. If you could change jobs without moving house for TWICE your salary what would you do? This is another thing people don’t learn about players. Lescott is not an Everton fan, he’s an employee of our club. He doesn’t owe us anything.
10 Posted 04/08/2009 at 12:21:04
To be fair he did put the word "traitor" in quotation marks indicating to me that he wasnt himself calling Gary Speed a traitor himself.
murf
11 Posted 04/08/2009 at 12:26:25
The Swiss FA this morning claimed that a deal had been done with us and Senderos. Only now several hours later, on SSN breaking news that we are in talks with Senderos.
The deal probably has already been done but the club didn’t want this out yet because of the Lescott deal. However, they’ve been forced to admit we have been talking even though they’re only saying we’re only in talks.
That isn’t just paranoia
12 Posted 04/08/2009 at 12:33:43
It is spectacularly amusing to see the same oldzzzzzzz Kewnright bashings again here. No mention of City’s flagrant disrespect and public bidding for Lescott. No, that’s fine. Instead let’s all slag off Kenwright. Cretins.
Thi is not Everton’s fault and nor is it Lescott’s. He’s been brilliant for us and he’s doing what anyone, and I mean anyone, would do. City are the new bling-laden tasteless arrogant bastards. Just get over it.
Paul Gladwell - wouldn’t even bother reading Dominic King. He’s on an umbilical chord to the club and serves no purpose for the fans. His articles are official feel good releases. He’s not a journalist.
13 Posted 04/08/2009 at 13:29:57
Your recollection of events is wrong.
Gary wished to leave Everton because of his concerns relating to the direction the club was going under the current management at that time. It was not a decision he took lightly. He remains to this day a Blue.
And so many people know the real reason he left, despite the gagging clause put on him at the time.
14 Posted 04/08/2009 at 15:10:44
He has done a good job for us ,we’ll make a handsome profit on him and maybe the money will develop the team. However,why not get the business done earlier? This summer really need not have been so disappointing.
15 Posted 04/08/2009 at 15:18:43
Ihave heard more than once that he was disillusioned with the management of the club and, in particular, the encouragement of the drinking culture that was prevalent at the time.
Always tickles me when I hear the knuckle scrapers in Gwladys St with their "gary gary gary gary shithouse speed " ditty. Tossers !
16 Posted 04/08/2009 at 15:35:35
Oh
Erm
17 Posted 04/08/2009 at 16:06:50
As to the way things are going with Lescott, it appears to me to be we are trying to get the most money we can get; nowt wrong with that. Most fans bleat about apportioning blame when it doesn’t matter; what matters is we get the best deal we can and improve the team as a whole.
Gary Speed was a cracking player and I was sad to see him go; I don't know the reasons why — I only know we are a better team now than we were then.
18 Posted 04/08/2009 at 16:46:37
Get a grip. You only have to read the posts on this site to see that some are happy for Lescott to go (for the right cash) and some think it would be the biggest mistake of this window. So how does the club win? Don’t sell and half will be screaming about a missed opportunity and all the players we could have bought with the cash. Sell and as many will come on here bashing Moyes, the club, Kenwright and anyone else they care to slag off. The club is struggling to keep thousands of individuals happy, yet we only please ourselves. Easy isn’t it?
Ifs, buts, maybes is all you have Kieran, and it’s quite clear that you have a not so hidden agenda. Perhaps you might enjoy American Football more. The draft will not annoy you as much.
One more point on Gary Speed. I would like to echo the views of a post above identifying Speed as a regular pundit on Everton games. He is always pro Everton and it is my understanding that he was a boyhood blue and his son is following in his footsteps. As for Kevin Ratcliffe, he is an Everton legend but he is so negative about us when he’s a pundit on Channel 5.
Maybe Lescott is off to Shiteh, but you’d be as well tring to read the leaves in the bottom of your tea cup as use the logic above. Of course if Lescott does go you’ll probably see that as proof that your logic was impeccable. It’s like shooting in the dark, your firing bullets but if you hit anything it will purely be coincidence.
COYB
19 Posted 04/08/2009 at 17:48:39
20 Posted 04/08/2009 at 19:38:51
21 Posted 04/08/2009 at 21:08:14
Sod it, Villa are worse off for losing Barry to City, that's a key player for them. We can roll with this one...
22 Posted 04/08/2009 at 23:04:44
My whole point was that the club stitched Gary Speed up to like like a "traitor" when in fact it was club finances that caused his departure. Sorry to see that several of you weren’t capable of understanding that and decided to go on unnecesary rants about the virtues of Mr Speed.
23 Posted 05/08/2009 at 02:22:13
But your overall point is spot on. Everton has a history of "demonising" players that wish to move on, even though it’s part and parcel of football life.
Each case is different. Rooney / Jeffers vs Ball / Ferguson.
I agree with your overall point. If Joleon wants to make the move, he should be allowed to and we should be grateful for the profit opportunity affords. Even if the club calls it for "football reasons", we shouldn’t be too cynical... Time will tell if it works for him or not. With the exception of Rooney, not too many players who leave Everton go on to bigger and better things.
24 Posted 05/08/2009 at 09:49:43
Add Your Comments
In order to post a comment to the MailBag, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and MailBag submissions across the site.
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
I'm sure there's a name for the questionable logic train that runs through your post, Kieran; it runs fast... and leads to some rather odd conclusions, it seems to me.
But... you could be right!