Everton FC News: We’ve spent all the Joleon Lescott transfer money and more, Robert Elstone

Sep 10 2009 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

Everton FC News: ROBERT ELSTONE has defended Everton’s spending during the summer transfer window.

And the Goodison chief executive claims the club spent “considerably more” than the £24million they could eventually receive from the sale of Joleon Lescott to Manchester City.

Everton’s board have come under fire from some sections of the support for failing to sufficiently bankroll David Moyes’s squad strengthening.

After months of relative inaction, the Goodison manager spent heavily during the final week of the transfer window, splashing out £6.6m on signing John Heitinga from Atletico Madrid, £9m on Diniyar Bilyaletdinov from Lokomotiv Moscow and £5.5m to bring Sylvain Distin from Portsmouth.

Until that late flurry, the only arrival had been the signing of Jo from Manchester City on a season-long loan before the move of Lescott in the opposite direction last month freed funds for Moyes.

And Elstone insists that, while taking into account a significant increase in the wage bill, the board have invested £8m in new players this summer.

“We absolutely spent considerably more than the Joleon Lescott money,” said Elstone. “If I can just put that record straight, we spent the Joleon Lescott money and around £5m more in transfers.

“And we have also taken on about £3m over budget in our wage bill. Joleon’s money plus about £8m is this year’s investment in players.

“We as a board recognise that we have to continue to support David Moyes because absolutely everything we are about is about progressing up that league table.

“We squeeze our orange as hard as we possibly can and we go back and do that again. We do that as aggressively as we possibly can.”

Meanwhile, Moyes is confident Marouane Fellaini can avoid a bout of second season syndrome despite the

Belgian suffering a disappointing start to the campaign.

Fellaini, whose summer was disrupted by a debilitating virus, was dropped to the bench in Everton’s most recent game at home to Wigan Athletic.

But the midfielder responded to the setback by emerging during the second half to help inspire the Goodison outfit to their first Premier League points of the campaign with a 2-1 triumph.

And having seen Fellaini prove a success following his club record £15m arrival from Standard Liege 12 months ago, Moyes is convinced the player can rediscover his form.

“Felli’s second season will be tough,” said the Everton manager.

“I thought the first six months of this season would be the hardest for him.

“I thought this might be the hardest period and he might find it tough to reach those heights again. He has been a bit down but the good thing is that he knows about it, he is aware of it.

“That gives me great hope.

“When players don’t recognise that they are not playing as well as they should be, that’s when you have problems but Felli recognises he can play much better.”

Everton’s Premier League visit to Hull City has been rearranged for Wednesday, November 25 with a 7.45pm kick-off.

The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday, December 15 but has been switched because of the Everton’s involvement in the Europa League.