“We can only take things on face value. The club have turned down two offers and the manager is not prepared to sell. Let’s move on and look forward to the new season. Will they get the message? The way they are going about their business, I don’t think so.

“There are ways and means of doing things – and Everton do it the right way. What other clubs do is nothing to do with us.”

If Lescott’s future dominated the agenda for the last couple of days in America, it would be wrong to overlook the merits of a performance that yielded a trophy for Neville and company in Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium.

Moyes has been building the Toffees up week by week and while the fixtures they are scheduled to play before the new Premier League campaign begins against Arsenal on August 15 are for practice, he still wants to win.

So do his squad. After a vibrant opening 20 minutes when they could have been three goals to the good but only had a Louis Saha strike to show for their dominance, this contest ended up with them having their backs to the wall.

They take the All-Star game seriously here – the amount of razzamatazz beforehand confirmed that – and for long periods of the second half, it seemed that the home side would extend their sequence to six winning games.

That Everton never went the way of Fulham, West Ham, Chelsea, Celtic and CD Guadalajara was thanks to their ability to dig deep when it matters – not to mention the brilliance of Tim Howard.

His summer vacation may have been short but Howard showed his wellbeing with two outstanding saves in injury time to force the shoot-out before following up by denying Brad Davis – scorer of the MLS equaliser – Davy Arnaud and Freddie Ljungberg.

Without him in such fine form, Everton would not have recovered from James Vaughan and Jo missing their first two spot-kicks but, as it was, Leighton Baines, Neville, Lescott and Jack Rodwell turned the situation on its head - much to everyone’s delight.

“It was a tough game and I don’t think we played well,” Neville reflected. “But we won and in a penalty shoot-out, too. The gaffer said it was good practice for us and we’ve come on in our preparations.

“The first 20 minutes we played really well but then we stopped passing the ball. It gave them encouragement, particularly when we started giving it away cheaply. They have got the type of players who thrive on confidence.

“But in terms of a workout, it was another step up from Saturday (against River Plate). Before the shoot-out, he told us we are in Europe and to remember that we could face a game that goes to penalties.

“We actually laughed in the dressing room because we said it was the gaffer’s first trophy but we obviously want to get our hands on a proper on. That’s the aim.”