Moyes blasted Hughes for unsettling Lescott

Everton manager David Moyes has blasted Manchester City manager Mark Hughes for unsettling is centre defender Joleon Lescott. The Everton manager has repeatedly told his Eastland’s rival that the defender is not for sale, after turning down offer of £15m and £18m from  Man City.

Moyes explained that he was the sole decision maker at Everton when it comes to player transfer, and that there was no chance of him allowing the defender to leave, without a good replacement for him. Moyes was responding to recent comments by City manager that, they are still trying to speak to the people who will ultimately make the decision over whether the deal continues. At the press conference this afternoon, Moyes said, “There’s no dialogue between anyone at Everton and Manchester City, unless Manchester City are talking to someone who they shouldn’t be. It is certainly not me. They said they are trying to talk to the people who make the decisions at Everton, well at this football Club I make the decisions. I have control of the football club so they know who to phone and I’ve not had a call, so they must be talking to the wrong people.”

Manager of Everton Football Club

Moyes was asked by journalists if he was disappointed with the way Man City’s interest in the defender was handle. He replied. “We wouldn’t do our business in public, we would go to the right people. We have said all along we don’t want to sell Joleon Lescott. The offer was never big enough, we rate Joleon that highly, we think the world of him as a centre half and as a left back. He gives us two players in one. They paid £12m for Gareth Barry with one year left on his contract but Joleon has considerably more than that left.

“We have had four weeks of ongoing dialogue and it’s been through the media, it’s not been directed through me and I make the decisions here. There’s not been one call through me and I think the way the business has been handled has been disgusting. All it’s done is disrupt our football club and make it very difficult for us. He also admitted that the situation has taken its toll on Lescott himself, who handed in a transfer request earlier this week. He has been distracted, obviously,” continued Moyes. “The boy’s in a little bit of turmoil with the way that things of gone, but he’s been consistently told by the manager that we won’t be selling him. So he should get his head around it and get on with his job. Maybe other people are telling him different. The fans gave him great support (against Malaga) and that’s what we want. They saw that the decision we were making was right, and hopefully they still see that.”

Moyes also talk about adding new players to his squad. He revealed that he hopes to add new players to the club very soon. “We have got 13 or 14 players which I am happy with and we have some up and coming youngsters as well which gives us great hope. I hope maybe within the next 48 hours or so we will have a couple of new players added to the squad, and we will start rebuild our players for the new season.