Manchester City took their summer spending to a staggering £120m tonight when they resolved a late hitch over Joleon Lescott's protracted move from Everton to add the England international to their ranks for an initial £22m.
The 27-year-old has signed a five-year contract worth £90,000-a-week with City, having passed a medical on Monday afternoon only for the deal to be put on hold for 24 hours due to a dispute over payments owed to the defender's representatives. A further round of talks broke the impasse this evening and Lescott could make his debut for Mark Hughes' team against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Sunday.
Lescott's fee will eventually rise to £24m providing additional targets are met during his stay in Manchester and his new club expect to unveil the second costliest English defender – after Rio Ferdinand – at a press conference Thursday.
David Moyes, Lescott's former manager at Everton, has commenced moves to replace his £5m signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers with a £5m bid for the Portsmouth defender, Sylvain Distin. Moyes's interest comes after Everton completed the £9m capture of Russia international midfielder, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, with a second defender also on the manager's wish-list for the remaining week of the transfer window.
Aston Villa are also interested in the former City and Paris Saint-Germain centre-half, who wants to leave Fratton Park and is likely to face a straight choice between the personal terms on offer at Villa or Goodison Park, although Portsmouth insist they have only received an official bid from Everton.
