Moyes fumes as City maintain Lescott chase

Everton manager David Moyes has launched an astonishing attack on Manchester City after losing patience with their attempts to prise England defender Joleon Lescott from Goodison Park.

Moyes is furious that City boss Hughes has made public his interest in Lescott as well as suggesting that the Toffees boss won’t have the final say in whether the centre-back remains on Merseyside.

City have had two bids of 15 and 18 million pounds (24.7 and 29.7 million dollars) rejected for Lescott, while the former Wolverhampton star has handed in a written transfer request which has been turned down by Moyes.

Reports claim Hughes is likely to make a further bid of over 20 million pounds (33 million dollars) before the transfer window shuts on August 31, but Moyes, speaking on Friday, made it clear that only he decides who stays and goes.

“He (Hughes) said they were talking to people who make the decisions here. Well he knows who makes the decisions at Everton and it is me,” Moyes said.

“There is no dialogue between us and Manchester City as far as I know. He (Hughes) has never once picked up the phone and given me a call, so he is not going to get the answer. I am the one who makes the decisions here, not like other clubs.

“It has disrupted us. They have been talking about it and we have not been talking about the start of the season, that has been disruptive. So maybe that is what the overall plan was.

“I look back and see how Real Madrid did their business with Manchester United when they signed Cristiano Ronaldo. It was done at the tail end of the season, and it was done quickly to allow United to buy if they wanted to do so.

“We cannot be getting offers a week or two to go before the end of the deadline. And the offers they made shows that we value Joleon Lescott far higher than they do.

“Joleon is a massive player for us, we think so much of him and do not want to lose him.”

Moyes admits City’s huge financial offer to Lescott has left the player in turmoil about his future.

The Everton boss is yet to decide whether to play Lescott in Saturday’s Premier League opener at home to Arsenal, but he knows the Goodison faithful could give the defender a rough time.

“He has been distracted, he is in turmoil with the situation and you can see how things have gone,” Moyes said.

“He has been consistently told by the manager that he will not be sold so he should get his head around that and get on with the job.

“His head has been twisted and I cannot say the way things have been done is right, it is not how we do things at this club.

“But maybe their football club is different, I control things here, maybe it is not quite the same there.

“It has not been handled correctly from over there (City). We do not do our business in public, we would go to the right people to find out what is happening.

“There is not a chance we will sell this close to the end of the window, the offers were not big enough. We think the world of him, as a centre-half and a left-back. He gives us two players in one.”