http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...itude-poor-Id-let-lads-Im-just-like-that.html
Moyes sounds like a right twat ..
Joleon Lescott has finally answered back. Finally responded to the accusations that were levelled at him by David Moyes; the reasons Everton’s manager gave for freezing him out in his last few days at Goodison Park.
Bad attitude, poor work rate, big-time Charlie. When Moyes watched his side lose 6-1 to Arsenal in that first game of the Barclays Premier League campaign, he said Lescott had let down his team-mates.
A man of principle, Lescott has also had his say about the way the evidence he gave against Emre, then at Newcastle, was treated by the independent FA commission
that investigated those allegations of racism two-and-a-half years ago. He says he has not supported the FA’s ‘Kick It Out’ campaign since.
First, though, he wants to deal with Moyes and what happened when a request to move to Manchester City was followed by that crushing opening-day defeat.
It is a story that offers a fascinating insight into Moyes as a manager and one Lescott feels he needs to tell, if only to try to influence the opinion of the Everton supporters who turned against him shortly before his departure.
Lescott hopes they will now understand, just as he wants them to know that he still has the highest regard for the club he served with such distinction for three years, as well as many of the people who remain there. He even retains a huge amount of respect for Moyes.
But the England defender is deeply saddened by the way it ended and deeply hurt by the manner in which he was ostracised, by the extraordinary lengths Moyes went to in forcing him to train on his own.
‘The biggest thing for me was what the manager said about my attitude,’ says Lescott.
‘When he made those comments about me to the media I just couldn’t believe it. He said my attitude had been poor, that I had let down the boys, and it was so inaccurate.
‘I’m not saying I’m the perfect professional but I do pride myself on my attitude. I work hard every day in training and in every game and I’d hate anyone to think I Lescott had let down the boys.
‘I think there might have been a bit of a misunderstanding at first. We lost 6-1 on the Saturday and when we all went in on the Sunday I probably was a bit chirpier than some of the boys, but only because it was my birthday. Not because of anything else.
‘Everyone then had the Monday off. But I was so disappointed with my performance on the Saturday I decided to go in anyway. I don’t think it was a disgraceful display but it obviously wasn’t any good because we’d lost 6-1. I didn’t feel I deserved a day off. So I went in on my own, trained on my own. The gaffer actually saw me in the gym.
‘On the Tuesday it was fine, I trained with the lads. But then came the Wednesday. We’re in the room waiting for the team meeting we have before we train and suddenly I’m told by Steve Round (the assistant manager) to go to the manager’s office.
‘What he said to me was pretty much what he then said to the media. That my attitude had been poor. But he also said I’d be training on my own until the end of August, until the transfer window had closed, and only if my attitude had improved would he then bring me back into the squad.
'‘I said nothing. I’ve never been someone who disrespects the manager. But I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, couldn’t believe it had come to this. I’d had a series of discussions with him throughout the whole saga with Manchester City.
'He’d had his say, I’d had my say, but never had we fallen out. And then he just comes out with that. I might not have disagreed with him if he’d said he felt all the talk of a transfer to City had unsettled the team, that he wouldn’t play me until the situation was resolved. I’d have accepted that. We had lost 6-1, after all. But to give the reasons he gave for excluding me was hard to take.’
What followed was astonishing. ‘I left his office and went straight outside to where the reserves were training,’ he recalls.
‘I went over to the coaches, explained that I wasn’t training with the first-team squad and asked if I could join in with them. “No problem,†they said. But then, about 20 minutes later, the first team come out and the gaffer sees me and calls me over. “I told you, you’re not training with anyone. You’re training on your own.†And forced me to walk off the pitch.
‘I ended up in the gym that day for about an hour, then went home. Later that afternoon I spoke to Phil Neville, as the club captain, and asked if he thought I should go to the game the next night. He said I should, and I did, but beforehand I went to the training ground and asked one of the fitness coaches to work with me, get me doing some sprint reps, stuff like that, to keep me sharp.
‘But then it got really silly. Steve Round comes over and tells the fitness coach he can’t work with me either. Under no circumstances, he says, is anyone allowed to work with Joleon Lescott.
‘So there I am, working on my own, when the fitness coach reappears about 15 minutes later. Legally, he says, he’s not allowed to leave me working alone. He can’t coach me, he’s not allowed to because of what the manager has said. But he has to stand there and watch me, just in case I suddenly have a heart attack or something
and he has to run to get medical help.’
'Even then, Lescott chose to attend the Europa League encounter with Sigma Olomouc — the night when the supporters who spotted him sitting there in the stand showered him with abuse.
‘Until then the fans had been great with me,’ he says.
‘Even after it came out that I’d handed in a transfer request. But their view of me changed after what the manager said about my attitude and I felt it was really harsh. It’s the reason I want to give this interview, in the hope that Everton fans feel that I didn’t let them down.
‘That night was amazing because when I got to the ground I was told I wasn’t allowed in the dressing room to wish the boys the best. In the end I had to stand in a side corridor and wish them the best as they walked past me.’
As Lescott sits over his peppermint tea, I ask him to consider the evidence that Moyes could present in his own defence. The two performances he gave, within a few weeks of each other, against that same Arsenal side. In Everton colours he had lost 6-1, while in the colours of Manchester City he had won 4-2.
‘In my opinion I wasn’t directly at fault for any of the six goals Arsenal scored against Everton,’ he says.
‘But I was at fault for the goal Robin van Persie scored for Arsenal against City. I allowed him to turn me and score. My mistake, end of story. It was unfair to focus on me after that 6-1 defeat and I know that’s how some of my team-mates felt, too.’
The transfer request was something he issued reluctantly and something he resisted until he felt he had no other option.
‘The moment everyone realised there was serious interest from City I handled everything the best way I could,’ he says.
‘I listened to my mum and dad and to my older brother Aaron. My brother (currently at Bristol Rovers) is a smart guy and someone I always go to for advice.
‘I stayed quiet, didn’t do any interviews that might rock the boat, and showed respect to the manager and the club. Even when a second bid went in and I was being advised by some people to start really pushing it and put in a transfer request, I said no.
'I felt they didn’t know David Moyes the way I do. Felt they didn’t really understand the situation, either. I didn’t think it was a good idea to just go and hand in an
official transfer request. I thought it was better to talk to the manager, tell him how I felt, see what he said and then go from there.
‘He had his opinion, I had mine. I won’t go into what was said between us in those private meetings because that’s not right.
‘But then there’s this article in one of the Sunday papers, calling me greedy and a coward. A coward for not handing in a transfer request. I just thought “Cheekâ€. He doesn’t know anything that has happened, doesn’t know anything about me.
‘So I thought, OK, I’ll put in an official transfer request. And it quickly became public. I thought if Everton really wanted to keep me, they would have kept it quiet and simply rejected it. But it came out and that was that. Which was a pity, because I loved it at Everton, had so many friends there. I didn’t expect people to be happy about me leaving but it could have been handled so much better.’
Everton got £22million for him. Not bad for a player who was signed from Wolves for £2m plus add-ons.
‘I know the chairman loves the club with all his heart but it was good business for them,’ says Lescott.
‘That said, I still had to be the one who made it happen when it came to the crunch. I felt Manchester City was too good an opportunity to pass up but I think they were waiting for me to show I was serious about going there. I had to show some intent and only then, I think, were they prepared to pay the money.’
Rising star: City star Lescott recognises Moyes' part in his elevation from Championship centre-half at Wolves to international defender with England
And yet for all that, for all the hurt Moyes caused, Lescott still rates his former manager highly; still recognises the role he played in his rise from Championship defender to England international.
‘I remember one time when he pulled me to one side to tell me I’d been doing well,’ says Lescott.
‘But then he told me he’d had a call from the England manager — at the time it was Steve McClaren — and revealed how he’d told him I wasn’t ready but he would have told him I was ready had I played well in the last two games — when he was playing me out of position at left back, by the way — but decided against it.
‘I have to say I was stunned. I just thought, “How can that benefit me? How does that make me feel better?â€. I thought it would reflect well on him and the club if I played for England. I just couldn’t see the logic in what he had done.
‘Even then, though, I won’t forget what he did for me and I recognise what he’s done for Everton. He’s a good manager. Tactically he’s spot-on. The way he prepares the team for matches, he’s meticulous.
‘And he’s got a great bunch of lads there. Fair play to him for that, for the way he’s brought them all together. He got me from the lower leagues, Tim Cahill and Phil Jagielka, too. He’s bought some great boys and the team spirit there is brilliant.’
That spirit was evident when allegations were made against Emre that he had racially abused Joseph Yobo. Lescott says he heard something and so did Tim Howard. So convinced were they of the Turkey midfielder’s guilt that they travelled to York to give evidence to the independent commission.
There was, however, a problem, something Newcastle’s legal team seized on. There was a slight discrepancy in the evidence submitted by the two Everton players as to what they thought Emre had said. In the end, the commission was ‘not satisfied that the charge was proved’ and the case was dropped.
‘I’ve not worn a Kick It Out T-shirt since,’ says Lescott.
‘And I haven’t smiled for the anti-racism campaign photographs we’ve posed for as a team, either. I just thought the whole thing was badly handled.
‘There was so much made of what wasn’t said rather than what was said. Me and Tim Howard went and gave evidence and yet we weren’t allowed any representatives. The player involved was — he had a whole legal team. But we were just there on our own.
‘Tim and I were walking away in different directions when it was said but look at the way we both reacted, at exactly the same time. We’ve heard something and it’s not like we’ve heard black and white. What we claimed was said wasn’t that different.
‘I was disappointed with everyone involved. We were told it would take a couple of days for them to review all the evidence at the hearing in York and I hadn’t even got home when it was announced that he had been cleared. I just thought, “Stuff itâ€. I’m not getting involved in the campaign again.’
He focuses now on his young family and his new football club, a club he says is going places fast. After signing for them shortly before the transfer window closed, City have suddenly presented him with a chance to win trophies.
'Moving to City was one of the best days of my life' ‘Moving to City was one of the best days of my life because it was something I wanted,’ he says. ‘It wasn’t about the money. I remember hearing that one of the coaches at Everton, someone I’d worked with every day, had said that about me and I thought, “How can you say that when you know me as well as you do?â€.
‘Believe me, I had a great contract at Everton. I didn’t need any more. But City represented a chance to achieve real success faster than it was going to happen at Everton.
‘People talk about David Moyes maybe one day going to Manchester United and that’s fine for him because managers can afford to wait. But as a player you don’t have that luxury and I felt I couldn’t wait.
‘And, don’t forget, it works both ways in football: players are just as easily sold against their wishes.
‘I had friends at Everton who were suddenly transferred — they might have been away with us on a pre-season tour when they’ve suddenly been ordered to go home. A club had come in for them and Everton wanted to sell.
‘At City it’s just brilliant, the way the dressing room has gelled. I think it’s the sheer sense of excitement among all the lads, this feeling that we can achieve things and not just in the future but straight away.
‘You can sense the excitement among the fans, too. They are enjoying watching players like Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor as much as I’m enjoying
playing and training with them.’
It certainly beats training on his own.
Moyes sounds like a right twat ..