Football Transfer Gossip: David Moyes not optimistic about signing Landon Donovan
The FIFA world cup for long has been the showpiece event not just for teams from across the world to fight for the ultimate title, but also for European clubs to pick and chose players to sign. Nothing too different happened this time, but Landon Donovan the captain of United States, who played for Everton last season on loan from LA Galaxy, has become a bigger player all of sudden, than the one that came to England. The reason though is pretty legit; he did lead USA to a very good world cup campaign.
Everton’s boss David Moyes, had been quite impressed with the performance of Donovan and was interested in signing the American on a full term contract. Moyes however, has said that the chances of getting his man now look slim; he added that the price tag of Donovan has gone very high and would not be feasible for the Mersey side club. He said that while Donovan was at Everton, he adapted to the English game quicker than he has see any player and he would have been a great addition to the toffees, but not at the price LA Galaxy are asking for.
Moyes was speaking to the reporters after a pre season friendly match win against Norwich City.
Donovan came to Everton on a 3 month loan deal; it was during the time when American Major League Soccer season is off. It is believed that Donovan himself is very interested in coming back to Everton, but the MLS chief Don Garber is the man who does not want to let go of the American captain.
Landon Donovan has scored 3 goals for his MLS side LA Galaxy since coming back from the world cup; he is also the league’s most valuable player at the moment with 11 assists. The national captain also has the distinction of becoming only the 6th player to score 100 goals in MLS regular season.
Meanwhile, Everton continued their preparations for the upcoming season, they beat Norwich city 4-2 and proved that they have enough attacking potency in the team. Tim Cahill arguably the best player for Everton netted in a hat trick after making his way back in the team following a disappointing world cup.
Everton manager after the match said that he is very happy with the squad that he has right now, he added that this is a very sad truth of English football that whenever a team outside the big 4 makes its way up the packing order. The big boys come with cash in their hands and take away the influential players. He added that things like that just peg the team back to where they were and the rebuilding process has to begin once again.
Moyes said that not just in England but in Europe, a club needs to have insane amount of money and not just good academies to become one of the best. He said the example of Wayne Rooney is a prime one; Moyes was upset when he said that Everton made Rooney and when it was time to get the rewards, he was picked up by Manchester United. He went on to say that, the lure of big clubs and more money is something clubs like Everton cannot compete with and if things remain like that. The Everton manager said that UEFA and FIFA need to bring in some caps and rules to keep the balance in the game.
Everton once did manage to break through the big 4 and finished 4th in 2005, in the Premier League, however, next season were knocked out during the qualifying stages of champion League. Since then they have come close but not been able to make the next step. Moyes believes if the big clubs do not hog his young talents, he can compile a team good enough to challenge the top teams in England.