Man City finally close in to sign Joleon Lescott from Everton

Although Mark Hughes missed out on his initial target, Chelsea skipper John Terry, he will now finally be able to partner Joleon Lescott with Kolo Toure, a £16m capture from Arsenal. Moyes had been determined to stop City from taking his player but the writing appeared to be on the wall when he lost patience with Lescott on Wednesday.

The Everton manager has finally submitted to Manchester City’s ever-increasing bids for the England defender, and it seems that the Eastlands club will finally get their man for £22m.

The Merseysiders had already turned down two offers for Lescott, with manager David Moyes making a defiant stand and refusing to be forced into selling one of his key players by City’s complete disregard of money.

Many neutrals have backed Everton’s stance on the Lescott situation, believing Moyes was right to stand up to City.

But not Wigan chairman Dave Whelan, who claimed yesterday that Moyes was wrong to stand in Lescott’s way.

Whelan said: ‘You have to ask David Moyes, “If someone comes for you as a manager and wants to double or treble your wages to manage that team, would you go?” The answer has got to be Yes. He’s a professional manager and this lad’s a professional footballer. He plays for money.

‘David Moyes is a very committed manager and very loyal to Everton. But I don’t think he has accepted that money counts in football. Big style.

'If Man City come and say we’ll give you £20m and the lad himself knows his wages are going to double or treble, you’ve got to listen and accept that the lad wants to go and you’ve got to let him go.

'The transfer deadline is not far off. Everton have suffered because of what’s been going on there, and it was desperate losing 6-1 to Arsenal.

'The sooner they get it settled the better and the club can return to being normal.’

Moyes reluctantly understood that he was only harming his team’s morale by keeping the 27-year-old at Goodison Park against his request.