SOCCER TRANSFER NEWS:JOLEON LESCOTT'S hope of securing a lucrative move to Manchester City has receded after the Everton manager, David Moyes, rejected a verbal transfer request from the England international.
The defender told Moyes in a meeting at the club’s Finch Farm training base yesterday morning that he wants to leave Goodison Park for Eastlands, where he would double his €47,000-a-week salary. Moyes responded by informing the 26-year-old he would not be sold regardless of City’s offer or Lescott’s desire to quit the club he joined for €5.9 million from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2006.
Moyes’s intransigence, a stance supported by the Everton chairman, Bill Kenwright, may still be challenged by an astronomical offer from City before the start of the new Premier League season but Everton have been consistent about Lescott’s future for several months. The club have already rejected two bids from City, for €17.6 million and €21.1 million plus add-ons, and Lescott has so far stopped short of submitting a written transfer request. He does intend, however, to write to Kenwright to explain his reasons for wanting to join City after a successful three-year stay on Merseyside.
Everton’s position has left City little option but to lodge a vastly improved offer for Lescott, who has now given his suitors more encouragement that a deal can be done than Chelsea’s John Terry ever did. Moyes is determined to prevent a club he views as a rival for next season from strengthening at his expense. The Scotsman has lined up a €2.9 million transfer for the Arsenal centre-half Philippe Senderos but that is to cover for Phil Jagielka, who is expected to be out until December with a cruciate ligament injury.
Moyes is also waiting for an answer from Rasmus Elm on a proposed €4.7 million move to Goodison from Kalmar FF, although the 21-year-old Swedish midfielder has several options including Fulham.
Lescott missed Everton’s pre-season game at Coventry City on Sunday and will also sit out tonight’s friendly at Blackpool. Moyes, however, has insisted the defender’s absence is not connected to his desire to join City. “Joleon picked up a hip injury while we were in America,” he said. “We don’t expect him to be fit for Tuesday but hopefully he can make it on Friday against Malaga.”
An added concern for Everton is the club’s record signing Marouane Fellaini, who is unlikely to be 100 per cent fit for the league opener against Arsenal on August 15th. The €17.6 million midfielder contracted a debilitating virus that has resulted in significant weight loss and Moyes admits the Belgium international remains short of fitness despite playing 90 minutes at Coventry.
“Fellaini picked up a viral infection in the summer,” Moyes said. “It got into his blood, he lost a lot of weight and he wasn’t a boy that could afford to lose any weight. It’s noticeable looking at him how thin he has become. It has definitely had an effect on his overall performance. It is going to take a little while for him to get his full strength back. I don’t think he is there yet. He has not been right all through pre-season and he is still not right.
“When you are the shape and build he is, when you lose weight it’s not all that easy to put it back on. Since he has come back we’ve been trying to get him built up, but the weight is not going back on at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Raymond Domenech has told Patrick Vieira that he needs to be playing regular football at club level if he is to fulfil his dream of leading France at the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer.
Vieira, the Internazionale midfielder, is keen to rejoin Arsenal and is waiting to hear whether the manager, Arsene Wenger, will offer a short-term contract. One of the chief considerations for Vieira will be where he can expect to play the most football this season; he was restricted through injuries and inconsistent form to 10 Serie A starts last time out.
Vieira has played in three friendlies for France since the 2006 World Cup, he missed Euro 2008 and is still to feature in the current World Cup qualifying campaign. Although he has enjoyed his fullest pre-season for some years at Inter, Domenech omitted him yesterday from the France squad he will take to the Faroe Islands for a World Cup qualifying tie next Wednesday, claiming he needed players who were “operational”.
The manager called up Toulouse’s 19-year-old central midfielder Moussa Sissoko for the first time. “You’d have to ask Pat whether Arsenal was the right choice for him,” said Domenech.
Guardian Service
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