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Let me join Manchester City: Joleon Lescott tells Everton he is ready to leave for Eastlands
By Ian Ladyman and JOHN EDWARDS
Last updated at 11:58 PM on 03rd August 2009
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David Moyes is determined to resist all attempts to take Joleon Lescott - leaving Manchester City fearing they could miss out on a second England defender.
The Everton manager is playing a desperate game of bluff even though his 27-year-old centre half is believed to have told him that he wants to go.
City hope their main target will follow that up with a written transfer request to up the stakes after Everton turned down two bids, the most recent for £19million.
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Moyes's main hope is that he can stall any deal until after the weekend, when City have set a deadline to tie up the transfer or they will call it off and pursue other targets.
City manager Mark Hughes is scared that another major international will jilt his club after seeing their six-month pursuit of Chelsea skipper John Terry collapse when he got cold feet about moving at the last minute, despite an offer of around £250,000 a week to join the Manchester club.
But Hughes and the club's wealthy owners are learning again that Everton, just like Chelsea, will not budge unless forced into a corner by the player himself.
It has left the Barclays Premier League's richest club having to identify Newcastle's Sebastien Bassong and Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin as fall-back options if they cannot do the deal before the start of the season.
If Lescott does not move, Hughes has been given the go-ahead to sign Bassong for £10m and former Eastlands captain Distin for £5m. This, in turn, would pave the way for last season's captain Richard Dunne to leave the club.
Moyes is believed to have told Lescott at Monday's meeting that, while understanding his interest in a lucrative contract at Eastlands, he has no intention of letting the England defender go and is determined to let the deadline pass without any transfer being sanctioned.
With Phil Jagielka sidelined for the first few months of the season, Everton are more concerned about reinforcing their defence rather than further weakening it and are lining up a bid for Arsenal centre back Philippe Senderos.
Heartened by reports in Germany that Senderos has snubbed interest from Hamburg and Hertha Berlin, Everton are hopeful of signing the Swiss defender for as little as £3m.
City remain happy that they have conducted their transfer business the right way and will continue to use the financial muscle of their Abu Dhabi owners to try to gatecrash the top positions.
