Is Lescott Loyal to the Lucre?

Loyal to the Lucre?

Whilst summer rolls into action many Blue websites have been indulging in Evertonians' favourite warm-weather pastime: Kenwright kvetching. Some anticipate a summer of scraping around for money, missing out on signings, and seeing our Chairman fail - once more - to sell the club. I'm actually glad Kenwright has failed to flog our beloved Toffees, and because of that, in my eyes he is the perfect Chairman...

If Kenwright is unqualified to run our club, then why is a rich Sheik more acceptable? Would a moneybags owner shed blue tears when we lost to Chelsea? Would he be able to wax lyrical about Mikel Arteta, comparing him to Alex Young like Kenwright did? The sad truth is a Chairman’s success is totally dependent on his money, and his ability to attract investment if he has no money himself. I see it a different way though. Yes, Kenwright’s theatrical tendencies make for ridiculous sound bites: “watch this space”, “I’m working 24/7 to sell this club.” are both embarrassing public belches – but the fact that Kenwright hasn’t been able to find a buyer is a bonus.


I do not want a billionaire at Everton. For all those people moaning about a move to Kirkby, selling to a Sheik would be the ultimate sell out - he would own our soul. The last few years have seen several filthy rich oil-igarchs waddle over the horizon, and the problem is their ridiculous appetite and their crazed shotgun approach to transfers, spraying bids everywhere. It's strange to think that we may look upon our fifth placed finishes as "the good old days". Days where we fielded a team of honest, well drilled pros, players who we love and who love us, rather than multi-millionaire drones. When we ask for our billionaire saviour - do we really want to enter that world, of Glazers, Gillettes, and Kenyons? A world of shelling out and selling out, of many rubles, no scruples, and gluttonous gloating. I would rather watch a snuff movie starring my parents.

If a white knight with wads of cash did come to Goodison, Moyes would undoubtedly face a different climate - no more late night pillow talk with Kenwright and - ironically - just as many stipulations and restrictions on spending. We are potless, but if we became Mersey Millionaires again, would Moyes have full control over signings? ...And the funniest thing? We might not even finish fifth! Worth selling our souls for that? Some quarters of Goodison fight so hard against Kirkby, and demand we stay at Goodison. And yet they have no problem praying at night for a billionaire who will suck away the essence of our club, even though we’d have a roulette wheel of playing staff, unnatural pressures on Moyes, and a team as nebulous, unbalanced, and unwieldy as a pet shop run by Dr Moreau.

To me, Mark Hughes has always been likeable, and Man City always harmless enough. That was until the money started flowing like wine at a Roman Orgy. Mark Hughes, the "centurion with salt and pepper hair", is going to find it hard not to turn into a debauched Nero. When you can have almost any player you want, when you can make Eto'o and Kaka think twice, you are bound to go a little crazed. But City's team are still Ersatz Galacticos, they haven't earned their Top 4 stripes yet...

Some Blues are bemused by Lescott going to City, calling this a step down. But City's bank balance is monumentally huge, meaning that - in a league where everyone is loyal to the lucre above all else - they are bigger than us. Let’s not prattle on about history making a big club, the Premier League is like 1980’s Wall Street. Money is everything. Gordon Gekko said it best: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”

If Lescott can double his wages by moving to Man City -a team that will soon be dining from English football's top table - why are some fans asking for him to loyally kneel at the Goodison trough? Was he loyal to Wolves? No, he moved to us, a club with more potential. Again, he is doing the same if he leaves us for City. As much as I want the Peoples' Club to be poster boys for potless Premier League success - we all have to admit that Man City's bank balance makes them far more upwardly mobile than us.

Moyes has made it clear that he doesn't want Lescott to leave, apparently not even for 20 million (could he really turn that down though), and Lescott's few words on the matter sound like an "I'll do as I'm told, gub'nah." The press though, have been sitting and watching, breathing heavily like a parking lot dogger - and are squirming with glee ; claiming that Lescott just has to "agitate" to get his dream move. And who can blame them, transfer tripe sells papers.

Thanks to the press frotteurs, rubbing their words against Lescott, almost daring him to ask for a move, this is a matter beyond Moyes. Lescott may not be loyal to the Man City lucre, but our board may be....And the money, whatever portion of it that Moyes sees, could help us get a right back ("the Scouse Cafu" is more Clark Kent than Superman) and an upgrade on our doe-eyed Smyke, Leon Osman.

To twist and mangle a famous quote: "In the next week or two this house, the nation and the Rt Hon Lescott himself will learn of what metal he is made’

Let's continue the fight without a sugar daddy. We are Sensible Soccer - they are FIFA '09...We are a local independent record store - they are a faceless music franchise... And with any luck we'll be Godzilla and they'll be Tokyo



To me, Mark Hughes has always been likeable, and Man City always harmless enough. That was until the money started flowing like wine at a Roman Orgy. Mark Hughes, the "centurion with salt and pepper hair", is going to find it hard not to turn into a debauched Nero. When you can have almost any player you want, when you can make Eto'o and Kaka think twice, you are bound to go a little crazed. But City's team are still Ersatz Galacticos, they haven't earned their Top 4 stripes yet...

Some Blues are bemused by Lescott going to City, calling this a step down. But City's bank balance is monumentally huge, meaning that - in a league where everyone is loyal to the lucre above all else - they are bigger than us. Let’s not prattle on about history making a big club, the Premier League is like 1980’s Wall Street. Money is everything. Gordon Gekko said it best: “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”

If Lescott can double his wages by moving to Man City -a team that will soon be dining from English football's top table - why are some fans asking for him to loyally kneel at the Goodison trough? Was he loyal to Wolves? No, he moved to us, a club with more potential. Again, he is doing the same if he leaves us for City. As much as I want the Peoples' Club to be poster boys for potless Premier League success - we all have to admit that Man City's bank balance makes them far more upwardly mobile than us.

Moyes has made it clear that he doesn't want Lescott to leave, apparently not even for 20 million (could he really turn that down though), and Lescott's few words on the matter sound like an "I'll do as I'm told, gub'nah." The press though, have been sitting and watching, breathing heavily like a parking lot dogger - and are squirming with glee ; claiming that Lescott just has to "agitate" to get his dream move. And who can blame them, transfer tripe sells papers.

Thanks to the press frotteurs, rubbing their words against Lescott, almost daring him to ask for a move, this is a matter beyond Moyes. Lescott may not be loyal to the Man City lucre, but our board may be....And the money, whatever portion of it that Moyes sees, could help us get a right back ("the Scouse Cafu" is more Clark Kent than Superman) and an upgrade on our doe-eyed Smyke, Leon Osman.

To twist and mangle a famous quote: "In the next week or two this house, the nation and the Rt Hon Lescott himself will learn of what metal he is made’

Let's continue the fight without a sugar daddy. We are Sensible Soccer - they are FIFA '09...We are a local independent record store - they are a faceless music franchise... And with any luck we'll be Godzilla and they'll be Tokyo

Can we stomach a groundshare with Liverpool?

This post was originally written for the Times Fanzine Fanzone Blog.

Moving home was always going to be an extremely testy subject. The very idea of it swills around our mouths until we spit it out like particularly disgusted wine-tasters.

It looks like we have three options with regards to our footballing home. First option, which should Kirkby go belly up will become even more viable, is to stay at Goodison, attempting to remodel our beautiful and historic stadium. For those who hate change (and as an Evertonian, force-fed past glory but starved of modern day success, how can we be anything BUT traditionalists) this looks like the least painful option. We stay in our beloved home and try and redevelop not a seismic shift, but a comfortable makeover for the Old Lady.

The second option is to move to Kirkby and "leave" the city of Liverpool. I am undecided about this one, only a heartless and brainwashed Orwellian Premier League Party Member would wave goodbye to such a beautiful old stadium and with it a mountain of memories, careworn laughter lines and crows feet. However, we have to move a few painful thorns from this argument.

First of all, we are only "moving out of the city" on a very dubious technicality. Try telling Terry McDermott or Alan Stubbs that Kirkby isn't in Liverpool. As much as the red side of town wants to believe that Everton are moving to a desolate atoll, we will in reality only be a handful of miles from Goodison. The other thing we have to realise is that we voted for this - this isn't a decision being forced on us by a distant and vengeful oil-igarch - but actually the result of a pretty fair plebiscite vote. Lastly, we have to at least take this option seriously, and give it time to breathe without the "Tesco Kirbydome" tag being foisted on it at the first chance. A new, bigger stadium will ultimately bring in more money, and we are a million miles and four decades distant from our Merseyside Millionaires moniker.

If leaving Goodison for Kirkby is tough, then how about the third option? A ground share with Liverpool. The knee jerk reaction is "not on your life, not in a month of Super Sundays"...But take a step back, take a deep breath. This could make sense.

By sharing we can get a bigger and better stadium than Kirkby, that much is obvious. One end, presumably, will be Blue, and the other red. Warren Bradley and his acolytes may feel that this is the only option if Merseyside wants to be involved in England's bid to host the World Cup - as neither Anfield nor Goodison compare to the two vast and modern stadia across the M62 in Manchester. To be honest, the idea of the city of Liverpool hosting a World Cup barely registers on my footballing radar - after losing one of our greatest young talents to Manchester, do we really care about a Mancunian stadium playing host to a World Cup game?

Of course, for many - including me - this isn't about sensibly stated facts, its about deep-rooted emotions. No Evertonian wants to say goodbye to Goodison because we worry that we would be saying goodbye to all the legends and memories. Dixie Dean, the gluttonous striker who told a different story with each of his goals, even though every tale ended the same; with the meeting of ball with net. Or Alex Young, fine bone china skillfully sliding through a bull market. As these tales, and countless more, are passed on we still have Goodison to frame them. But what if we leave the Old Lady? The very real fear of many is if we turn our back on Goodison we turn away everything that has made us great.

There is a strange symmetry to a ground share with the reds. One club split into two early in our common history, and now we could be grafted together like conjoined twins, long since split but now reunited again; still with our own identities but sharing living space. Is it possible to share with the enemy?

Even at its very worst, the relationship between Blue and red on Merseyside isn't even close to Barca- Real or Rangers-Celtic, teams pressganged by history into mutual enmity. There was a time when we sat together, sang together and dominated the league together. The answer to why this has changed lies at the bottom of Morrisseys melancholy caterwauling We hate it when our friends become successful. We are jealous because they didn't miss the boat for the top four like we did. We now get under their skin because we are starting to catch up after years spent beached at the wrong half of the table, they can no longer put their feet up and relax.

We need to realise that we are two sides of the same coin, Beardsley, Balmer, Morrissey, and Abblett and yes, even Abel Xavier. We are Blues dressed as reds Jamie Carragher and reds dressed as Blues Leon Osman. In the blue corner we have the punch drunk Rocky Balboa and in the red corner they have Joe Louis piston fists

Was I really the only one who wanted us to win the FA Cup and them to win the Premier League with the sound of Merseyside, Merseyside bobbing and weaving through the crowd in a Wembley season opener? This is neither Spanish morbo nor religious sectarianism or Italian vendetta. This is sibling rivalry.

Some will shake their heads until this idea is shot down. Some reds will scream until their faces turn blue, and some Blues will shout until their cheeks turn red. But to retain our history, a communal stadium with Liverpool, is the best idea for the Peoples Club: fact.

How can we guarantee that we dont see our hard fought history flutter away? By combining with our historic rivals, literally meeting halfway in Stanley Park. By swallowing our pride, sharing with the enemy in a halfway house of Blue and red. A stadium that befits, pound for pound, the most successful footballing citadel in the country.

We should flog Lescott...For the right price

Today's papers are awash with stories of Man City's latest transfer capers; and apparently Mark Hughes is preparing a bid for our very own Joleon Lescott.

It's midly irritating when the Sun and Mirror are prattling on about players leaving Everton, but it's a whole different matter when the broadsheets start getting in on the act too. Today's Guardian reports that City's "opening gambit" will be around £15m.

Obviously £15m is a huge amount, but Lescott is a hugely important player to us. If we can squeeze £20m out of them then the offer looks tempting, but Jagielka will not have recovered from his knee injury until October at the very earliest. What that means is that Jack Rodwell - who is being drooled over by every journo with a pulse thanks to his "tour de force"/"superlative"/"immense" display in defensive mid for the U-21's - would have to play at centre half again, until Jags got back to fitness. Either that or Moyes would have to pull yet another brilliant defensive signing out of the bag.

So City's massive bid, shouldn't just represent Lescott's value to the team, it should also take our lack of backup into account. Rodwell is excellent, but very young to be expected to consistently perform at centre half for the opening months of the season.

Looking at it from a purely financial perspective, £15-£20m is a glorious profit on a player that Moyes bought for £5m, and we all know that Lescott has two ropey knees, which often need treatment after games. Could we be getting £20m for a player that - when he hits the 30yr mark - could descend into a footballing Douglas Bader - like Paul McGrath or Ledley King? On the other hand, money is nice, but players are better - could we find an instant replacement for Lescott?

Barcelona and Everton

The papers heaped ridiculous praise on Man Utd before the Champions League Final on Wednesday, and after the game drizzled Barcelona in superlatives. Sandwiched in between was a game where Barca played well (not a superhuman performance like some papers suggested, but a good one - Barca have played MUCH better than that this season) and smothered Man Utd, killing them softly with their passing game.

What does this have to do with Everton? Well quite a bit actually - the fact that Barca were there in the first place grates a lot - as Chelsea would have been very tired an distracted if they had to play a CL Final three days before facing us. There's also this article in Toffeeweb entitled "Barca-ton" - and there's also's Barca's socio system - where each fan is a financial member of the club, surely the perfect system for the People's Club?

Trying to make sense of Fellaini...

Are we all just hypnotized by his feral frizz or is Marouane Fellaini slowly moving towards brilliance at Everton? Maybe it's because his big hair reminds people of Carlos Valderrama, the Colombian midfielder with the orange Afro who was a bubbling cauldron of skill; whilst our Belgian isn't exactly a footballing pen pusher - he is no Valderamma, Fellaini's loud hair masks a player whose game (fouls aside) is based on unfussy simplicity. Tommy Gravesen too, was a victim of his looks, most lazy commentators claiming that he was Everton’s tough midfield firebrand, when in reality his shaved head and goggle eyes belied his skill.

And yet the question still boomerangs back: does Fellaini bubble and fizz in our minds like a drug on a rusty spoon because he's 6ft 4 with a mountainous halo of hair, or does he stand out because he is good? Fellaini seems to make the difference in some Everton games, but when you analyze why he is good, you again get more questions than answers...He seems slow, his ungainly tendrils, and awkward rather than hard challenges on the deck, send grenade pins flying everywhere - and in the air he causes problems but often outside of the rules...

Fellaini, a man obscured by his totemic Afro (he tried braids but looked like Medusa with her snakes tamed) and surrounded by media bluster, has quietly and efficiently got on with his job. His goal at the weekend against Sunderland describes him perfectly, an unfussy finish from a man who - like Tim Cahill - is continuously in the right place at the right time for Everton.

A lot about the Belgian youngster has been confusing, early on he was met with nonplussed silence, misunderstood from all four corners of the Goodison box that he thinks outside of, and other times he’s been celebrated, with a large number of Fellaini acolytes donning Afro wigs in tribute.

At first we knew very little about him; he was tall, thin, and a midfielder – and even that fact became less certain over time. Stories of his stamina sapping brilliance in the Liege-Liverpool game - where he covered every blade of grass like a forensic crime scene analyst - beat him to Goodison. When he arrived he wasn't what we expected, but I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. He'd been plucked in the last few seconds of the transfer window from Standard Liege, with Moyes knowing well that no signings would actually provoke a full scale riot. What perplexed us what that the entire summer Everton’s eyes had been fixed on Joao Moutinho of Sporting Lisbon, amidst the carnage of Wyness walking, and our transfer policy atrophying - and what we got was very different from Moutinho...

It is on paper where Fellaini really excels, 8 goals for Everton so far in the Premier League ( the same as Cahill) for a 21 year old midfielder, in his first season in the English top flight, is an excellent haul.

15 million Euros (even the amount is in dispute amongst fans) got us a work in progress, a young player that hasn't yet been fully reverse engineered for Everton by Moyes. He looks like a lanky Blaxploitation Syd Barrett, and often plays like one too - his kung-fu kick goal early in the campaign woke us all to his potential. Sometimes his ponderous passing can be excruciating, his ability to see cards dealt is that of a seasoned Vegas croupier, and at other moments he looks like Tim Cahill's rightful successor. And what position should he play? He's been shunted around filling in for injuries, but underneath do we really know where his best position is? He is immense in the air - but not in the conventional manner, his flaying elbows, fists, and hair, make for an utter melee every time he goes for an aerial ball. In many ways he is as difficult to play against as he is to sometimes play with; Gab Marcotti described him as a "beast" - and to me that is the perfect description. We just need to tame his wild side....

He's young and still learning, Goodison Park is his workplace and also his classroom, and I cannot wait to see Fella grow at Everton.

Ed Bottomley

Everton:No Jags? No Mikky? No Yak? Less is more!

"Here comes success, hoo-ray success!"
So hollered Detroit's grizzled Iggy Pop, the optimistic lyrics mirroring the minds of thousands of Everton fans who jubilantly bounced through the week on Champagne bubbles after our Cup win over United. We even managed to bag a point a Stamford Bridge, and things were looking very rosy. That is until Phil Jagielka's injury stopped us all in our tracks.
Jagielka has had a wonderful season at Everton, looking more assured with each game and forcing his way further into Capello's thoughts and the England squad along the way. With our bare bones squad, a decimated strikeforce and a weakened midfield - it was comforting to have so much solidity at the back. For Phil to miss the Cup Final is painful for everyone, but it is just yet another setback in a sea of problems which started last summer with CEO Keith Wyness walking - and somehow we are heading to this season's finish line still fighting for a trophy. At Everton every injury to personnel miraculously transforms into a team building exercise, we are swiftly becoming the masters of less is more.
It has been a funny old season for the funny old game. Newly promoted Hull City rose so fast they got the bends, while previously bullet proof Aston Villa now look as prone as Detroit roadkill. Arsenal have had a rocky season but are firing on all cylinders now, and Everton, despite their rancid start, have had a strong season. Riley may be a United fan (we know he isn't really), Clattenburg may support the RS and Lady Luck - more important than those two shambling buffoons – is definitely not a Toffee. So the cards have been dealt, for our star defender and burgeoning England squad player - anterior cruciate damage and at least six months out - for our Iberian midfield laureate - season ending knee damage too - and for our main striker, a man who scores more goals than I have hot dinners - a ruptured Achilles tendon.
All you have to do is look at the Premier League table to see that thick black line between fourth and fifth, a line that separates the haves from the have-nots. First amongst the underclass is usually Everton, and we are seen as outsiders in the FA Cup too, with many a pundit already dismissing our chances against Chelsea. Things will definitely be harder without Jagielka, but when a team knocks three of the five teams above them in the league out of the FA Cup they can never be written off in such a cavalier fashion. Chelsea could also still progress to the Champions League Final, which is just three days before our Wembley match-up. Against Barcelona on Tuesday Chelsea's millionaire superheroes looked decidedly Clark Kent, and I fancy Everton, comfortable in their underdog status, to hassle, harry, and harangue them in the Cup Final.
Above all, no matter how gutting the Jagielka injury is, we need to remember that it has happened to the strongest area of our squad. Defence is one of the few positions where Everton have reinforcements; step up Joey Yobo. Jags may be our number one choice for centre half , but Joey Yobo is the man who helped us sneak under the velvet rope, and into fourth place. This is Moyes’ first chance at silverware, and his first Everton signing - Joey Yobo - could yet help him get it.

Barry banned for Goodison Cup Clash

Villa skipper Gareth Barry picked up a 5th yellow card at Ewood Park on Saturday for 'over-exuberant' celebration of their second goal and as a result will miss next Sunday's fifth-round FA cup tie at Goodison. Aston Villa also have injury concerns over Cuellar [hamstring] and Heskey [achilles tendon].

Following their exertions of recent weeks David Moyes has ordered the boys to take a few days rest before resuming training. An early doubt for the weekend is Marouane Fellaini [back], while Steven Pienaar is banned and unfortunately Joao Alves de Assis Silva, aka Jo, is ineligible having played for just 20 minutes in City's humiliating third-round defeat by Forest at Eastlands.