David Prentice: Manchester City transfer link worrying for Everton FC
EVERTON have endured bigger transfer shocks than the summer's day in 1977 when Ken McNaught decided the grass was greener elsewhere..
I'm thinking Alan Ball, Steve McMahon, Nick Barmby, Once a Blue . . . to list but a few.
But to a naive 14-year-old who still believed that Everton Football Club was the centre of the sporting uinverse, Ken McNaught's defection to Aston Villa was a shaker.
Because it was a sign that Everton lacked ambition.
McNaught was a hugely promising young centre-half who had been Everton's only ever present the previous season.
But when Aston Villa offered £200,000, Everton snatched their hands off. Worse still, they offered to throw in that bluest of Bluebloods, Mick Lyons, if agreement couldn't be reached with young McNaught.
It was a moment when Everton's place in the grander scheme of things came sharply into focus.
Villa had been a second division club just two years earlier.
With McNaught on board they were crowned European champions just four years later.
Everton were nearly men, never quite making that final push from contenders to champions.
I repeat the story because history looks like repeating itself.
The constant tabloid speculation linking Joleon Lescottt with Manchester City is based on fact.
And Evertonians fearing the worst are already seeking to soften the blow in case he goes.
"His knees have gone," "We could take Micah Richards and Jo" "Jack Rodwell is going to be a world class centre-half". That's just some of the bar-room wisdom I've listened to in the past few days.
But the truth is, Joleon Lescott is an outstanding centre-half.
Like McNaught, he is hugely impressive and young. Unlike big Ken he scores a prolific number of vital goals.
He is also English, which is increasingly significant to clubs who hope to be regularly involved in European football.
Until, fingers crossed, Phil Jagielka makes a full recovery from his dreadful knee injury, Everton are not well covered at centre-half.
Back in 1977 Everton promoted a promising young junior defender into senior service called Mark Higgins. It was a bold and successful move.
The Blues could contemplate a similar switch this season with the enormously promising Jack Rodwell, but it would still be a risky move, with the possibility of ruining the progress of a superb young footballer.
With senior Goodison officials either on holiday or unavailable, no-one has issued the kind of strenuous hands-off warning that Rafael Benitez saw fit to deliver as soon as similar speculation linked Javier Mascherano with a move to Barcelona.
But it was still reassuring to read Dominic King's understanding that Everton would toss out any City bid of £15m.
They should do the same with bids of £20 and £25m, because selling your best players is not the way to win trophies.
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As a City fan, I would love to have Joleon with us, but not at any cost.I feel that if Everton don't want to sell, should we put an offer in, then we should move on. The guy is under contract. I'm sure City could make an offer that Everton could not refuse. But that would only lend to bad feeling. I don't want my team to turn into financial bullies like that lot down the road. I really hope we would have more class than that.Having said that, we put in about fifty offers for Santa Cruz, though I also feel Blackburn got a better deal than us. What do you scousers feel about it?
Hi, I echo Martin's post. I have huge respect for Everton and David Moyes. Everton have built a top team and spent a relatively small amount of money and I would hate for my team to be thought of in the same way as the rags (albeit without the trophys) by bullying teams with loads of cash in order to get their best players. I would like to see Lescott at City as he is a top class defender who could get you 6 or 7 goals a season. As usual it will be the player who decides if a bid is accepted by declaring his wish to sign for a club like City who have astronomical ambitions and could pay him more than he will ever get at Everton.
Astronomical ambitions? Manchester City are a circus. When a "revolution" occurs this inevitably leads to turmoil.
I think people over estimate the lure of being "astronomically paid" to being well paid, and well loved and managed in a close knit group.
Why would Lescott go to Citeh - when they arn't in Europe, have no defined team structure, are in a state of extreme flux with no one able to definitively give a line up of a team they will have next season?
Money does not necessarily buy success. Even if you have oil-money - the unrealistic and over-reaching ambitions of Manchester City supporters, like Geordies, Kopites and others before them - will be their own team's downfall.