Source: Telegraph
David Moyes's determination to keep Joleon Lescott may waver before transfer deadline
Joleon Lescott should have been heading to Manchester City on Wednesday, but Everton's involvement in the Europa Cup this week ensured that the Premier League fixture at Eastlands was postponed until a later date.
New arrangements for the game are yet to be finalised, but the chances are that Lescott will be making the short trip down the M62 from Goodison Park to east Manchester before the two club's go head-to-head on the pitch.
The tug-of-war between Everton and City for the England defender has two weeks left to run before the transfer window closes on Aug 31.
But the fall-out from last week's verbal warfare between managers David Moyes and Mark Hughes suggests that the transfer saga is reaching breaking point and nothing has forced the issue quite so much as Everton's woeful opening day performance while losing 6-1 at home to Arsenal.
Moyes's anger at City's continued pursuit of Lescott following rejected bids of £15m and £19m for the 27-year-old came to the surface last Friday when he labelled the Manchester club's conduct as 'disgusting.'
Comments 24 hours earlier by City manager Hughes, who suggested that the club were talking to the people who make the decisions at Goodison, was viewed by Moyes as a naked attempt to undermine him at Everton by alluding to a perception that the men who hold the purse strings, rather than Moyes, will dictate what happens with Lescott.
Moyes is the King of all he surveys at Everton, however, and only he will decide the outcome of the Lescott saga.
But while the Scot's determination to rebuff City's interest was rock-solid three days ago, his view might just have been altered by the events against Arsenal.
Lescott was not to blame for the humiliating defeat, but he certainly played his part.
Whether pre-match rumours that he had asked not to play are true or not, Lescott's shaky performance suggested that his mind was elsewhere and that his focus was not solely on containing Arsenal's rampant forwards.
If Lescott's display against Arsenal was a sign of things to come, then Moyes will not allow the situation to continue.
City have two weeks to make their next move and a third bid is being planned at Eastlands, but Hughes and his ultra-wealthy owners are now prepared to make Everton sweat on Lescott.
If the player endures another miserable ninety minutes against Sigma Olomouc in Europe on Thursday, City will make their next move confident that Everton's resistance will break.
As each day passes between now and Aug 31, Moyes and Everton chairman Bill Kenwright will be forced to address the big question of whether keeping Lescott is worth more to the club than the £20m they could bank for his services.
Moyes is correct in claiming that Everton simply no longer have time to recruit an adequate replacement for Lescott, especially with fellow England defender Phil Jagielka out until Christmas with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
But has the tipping point now passed? After the events against Arsenal, are Everton now better without Joleon Lescott than with him?
