Everton close to Yakubu record

Aug 18 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON are closing in on the club record £11million capture of Middlesbrough striker Yakubu.

David Moyes has redoubled his efforts to land the Nigerian forward after yesterday completing a permanent deal for Benfica midfielder Manuel Fernandes.

Yakubu has been left out of Middlesbrough’s squad for their Premier League clash at Fulham this afternoon, despite Boro manager Gareth Southgate insisting he remains in their long-term plans.

But sources in the North East last night suggested Boro are privately resigned to losing the 24-year-old, with Everton clear favourites to sign the player ahead of a clutch of clubs believed to include Manchester City.

Yakubu cost Middlesbrough £7.5m when he arrived from Portsmouth two years ago, and Boro have already began planning for the future by unveiling the £6m capture of Mido from Tottenham Hotspur.

Fernandes, meanwhile, underwent the second half of his medical yesterday but international clearance is unlikely to come through in time for him to figure at Reading today.

Despite the recent transfer activity involving foreign players, an upbeat Moyes believes table-topping Everton are now reaping the benefits of their policy to buy British.

Moyes has brought in both Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines for a combined £9m during the season, having previously signed up-and-coming English talent such as Andrew Johnson and Joleon Lescott.

But the Everton manager admits it is becoming increasingly tricky to unearth England players of sufficient quality.

“We found it difficult to find English players in the market this summer,” said Moyes. “We have brought in Manu who is Portuguese and Steven Pienaar who is South African, but we have tried to bring the British ones in.

“There are now two or three here that are around the England squad and who’s to say we won’t be talking about Leighton Baines in a few months.

“At a time when people are talking about the number of foreigners in the English game, we’ve tried to bring in British players.

“But the numbers are dwindling. The quality has dropped and there is a much bigger and wider issue that needs to be addressed.

“I don’t think it’s just in this country either, there’s a drop off in a lot of the big countries too regarding talent and there may not be just one reason for it. People are starting to look into why there isn’t as much talent as we’ve had in the past.

“But I think money has something to do with it. English football now has the money to buy the best players from anywhere in the world, passports allowing.

“You don’t need to shop just in this one country, you can shop outside here. At Everton we haven’t had a great deal of money so our focus has been on what’s nearby and what’s in the local grocery store.”

Moyes added: “It has paid off at the moment, and I hope it will still be paying off by the end of the season. As a football club, the policy of turning around the ship at Everton has paid off as we have changed the philosophy here.”

Everton will aim to continue their 100% start to the season with victory at Reading today.

Moyes’s side, who won 2-0 at the Madjeski Stadium last season, are in confident mood but the manager said: “I’m not getting carried away. We’ve won two games already, one of them a really good win at Spurs.

“It’s a real tough game. We have had a pretty tough start, Spurs were fifth last season and Reading were up there for most of the year. Reading have had a really tough opening to the season themselves, but by the end of tomorrow we will be glad to have the trips to Spurs and Reading out of the way in the league.”

Moyes has an injury concern over Joseph Yobo, who sat out training on Thursday after suffering a minor groin problem in the win over Tottenham.

Leighton Baines trained for the first time this week following his arrival from Wigan, and was part of the squad that travelled south yesterday.

But Moyes added: “My plan is not to play Leighton Baines but we have to wait on Joseph Yobo. Preferably we’d give Leighton another week’s training before we consider playing him.”

Tim Cahill (broken foot) and James Vaughan (dislocated shoulder) are out while Iain Turner is doubtful with a groin problem.