Manchester City's sordid Lescott dealing puts Moyes' Everton job on line

As discussions move to boardroom level, the Goodison manager's 'Joleon stays' vow may have left him in an impossible situation. Manchester City's disgusting, relentless pursuit of Everton defender Jeloen Lescott has served to highlight everything that is rotten, degrading and totally unethical about the today's transfer system. We've always known about the “tapping” and illegal approaches, about the back-handers, the double-dealing with salaries and merchandising. We also know that a contract is not worth the paper it's written on when it comes to trading players. But Mark Hughes and Manchester City have dragged the whole procedure down to a new subterranean level that not only guarantees great disruption within the Everton boardroom but actually threatens to unseat manager David Moyes. Not content with Moyes's clear and unequivocal statement that Lescott would not be allowed to leave Goodison Park, City have continued to pester and pile on the agony – as you might expect from a club to whom the value of the pound means absolutely nothing. It's ironical, but by no means unusual, that the day after Everton's latest rebuff, Lescott asked for a transfer, which heaped even more pressure on Moyes.