Moyes risks wider schism with Everton over Baines and Fellaini

, 23 August, 0comments  |  Jump to most recent

Head games or hypocrisy? Moyes seems to have abandoned his stance on not discussing other club's players
David Moyes left Everton to a guard of honour and rousing send-off just three months ago but his pursuit of Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines risks driving deeper a wedge between him and the club he managed for 11 years.

That schism looks likely to widen this weekend following quotes attributed to the Manchester United manager in tomorrow's papers where he suggests the Blues should sell for the sake of their careers.

According to The Guardian and the Daily Mail, when asked whether he had sympathy for Roberto Martinez, Moyes is quoted as saying:

"I definitely do but I also know that if I'd been Everton manager and Sir Alex had come asking for Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini, I'd have found it very difficult to keep them because I always felt the right thing to do was what was right for the players."

The Scot, who admitted earlier today that the transfer deadline may pass without any further signings at Old Trafford, famously rebuked then Manchester City boss Mark Hughes for unsettling Joleon Lescott before the defender eventually moved along the M62 for £24m four years ago.

Moyes was also famously insistent during his days at Goodison that he would refuse to discuss players under contract at other clubs as that wasn't the way he does things, a rule he now seems all too happy to break as he seeks to tempt two of his ex-players to his new club.

United's disrespectful bid for the two players last week, which valued Fellaini at less than Everton's final £17.5m outlay on the Belgian and represented no increase on the £12m offer for Baines that was roundly rejected earlier this summer, has already strained relations between Old Trafford and Goodison Park. The detente can only grow more frosty in the wake of Moyes's latest comments which appear little more than an under-handed attempt to further unsettle the players.

Martinez, for his part, has made no bones this week about his dismay at the tactics employed by United and has done his best to put the matter to bed, saying: “Maybe it sounds a bit repetitive, but we do not want any bids and we are not inviting any bids."

 



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