The early hours of 30th July saw the release of the following statement by Everton Football Club :
“Everton Football Club can confirm it has received an offer of £18m for Joleon Lescott from Manchester City and that offer has been rejected outright.”
The aforementioned offer was a £3 million increase from City on the previous week’s approach and offer.
The 27-year-old defender was in the United States at the time, along with the rest of Everton’s squad, preparing for the MLS All-Star’s friendly.
Everton FC Captain Phil Neville said
“The club have turned down two offers and the manager is not prepared to sell him. Let’s move on and let’s look forward to the new season,”
before adding,
“Will City get the message? The way they are going about their business, I don’t think they will. There are ways and means of doing things – and Everton do it the right way.”
Pre-season friendly:
MLS All-Stars (A) 30 July, 2.30pm
David Moyes and the team played out an historic game at Salt Lake City, Utah, becoming the first foreign team to beat the All-Stars in this annual fixture. With the score at 1-1 after full-time, Everton keeper and former MLS All-Star Tim Howard saved three penalties in the shoot-out. Everton won 4-3 in the end.
Louis Saha had opened the scoring, but MLS player Brad Davis equalised following a defensive lapse from Lescott and the rest, and it was only Howard’s goalmouth heroics that kept the game level, who justly took the MVP award for the match.
Howard produced three excellent saves to deny Davis, Davy Arnaud and Freddie Ljungberg. Jo and James Vaughan missed spot kicks for the Toffees, but Leighton Baines, Lescott, Neville, and Jack Rodwell converted theirs.
Pre-season friendly:
Coventry City (A) 2 August, 12.30pm
The Sky Blues come back from behind twice to hold Everton FC to a 2-2 draw.
Everton, wearing the new black and neon away strip for the first time, took the lead in the 16th minute with a Tim Cahill strike, but Michael Doyle equalised twenty minutes later. It wasn’t until the 85th minute that Jose Baxter looked to have won it for Everton FC, but one minute before full-time and Aron Gunnarsson scored another equaliser, leaving the teams to share the spoils.
Joleon Lescott missed out on this testimonial game for Coventry’s Marcus Hall, so David Moyes played Jack Rodwell alongside Joseph Yobo in defence.
Today, 3rd August, and midfielder Marouane Fellaini may miss the start of the new Premier League season. The 21-year-old Belgium international is doubtful for the start of the 2009-2010 campaign.
Everton Manager David Moyes said:
“He has had an illness for most of the summer, it got into his blood and he lost a lot of weight. He has not been right all pre-season and is still not right.”
Joleon Lescott’s hip injury will keep him from playing in the friendly against Blackpool, although Moyes is upbeat:
“Joleon picked up a hip injury while we were in America, we don’t expect him to be fit for Tuesday but hopefully he can make it on Friday against Malaga.”
This news is against a backdrop of gossip suggesting the defender may hand in a transfer request this week so as to facilitate a move to cash-rich Manchester City.