Moyes blasts Cahill´s cup absence

Everton boss David Moyes wants compensation for losing Tim Cahill to the Asian Cup early in the new year.

Moyes fears he could be without the club’s top scorer for up to six weeks from next month due to his commitments with Australia in the tournament in Qatar.

The cup runs from January 7 to 29 but the Socceroos want Cahill to attend a pre-Christmas training camp.

Moyes is powerless to prevent Cahill going but insists Everton should not have to pay his wages while he is unavailable for the Premier League

“They are due to take Tim in mid to late December and depending how far they go in the tournament will determine how long he is away,” Moyes told the Liverpool Echo.

“I’m trying to delay him going until January and will do the best I can but I think it’s unfair.”

“I just feel in this world where the money is so tight for clubs, someone might say if you want to play in that tournament then there will be no wages in that month.”

“We can’t stop you playing for your country, but maybe there are no wages.”

“You cannot turn round and say ‘bring yourself in line with us’ because their weather or their seasons are different from us.”

“You can’t ask them to change, but maybe if you are going to take the player away in the middle of the season should a club get reimbursed?”

“If that was the case I don’t think it would happen because those countries can’t afford to.”

“If 10 Australian players were playing in Europe then surely they couldn’t afford to pay their wages each for a month.”

“If you were an owner of a club you would be disappointed about paying the wages of these players and not getting the benefit of them at that time.”

Moyes is used to losing African players to the African Cup of Nations during the Premier League season but this will be the first time Cahill, who has already netted six goals this term, has departed for an extended period.

Cahill played in the 2007 Asian Cup but that was held during the Premier League off-season and had no impact on the Blues.

“We sign African players and we accept that they will be away to the African Cup of Nations, but when we signed Tim Australia weren’t in Asia’s pool so we didn’t expect to be missing him,” Moyes said.