Ledley to Everton - may or maybe not

The League Paper is predicting that Everton plan to step up their efforts to sign Cardiff City highly-rated midfield Joe Ledley with a £6m offer.

The Everton boss has long been an admirer of Ledley and has been constantly linked with the Merseyside club for well over a year. Everton Manager David Moyes was rumoured to have put a bid in back in January of £5m but with the club pushing for a top six finish Cardiff was not interested.

Everton had Ledley watched at the 3-1 win at Plymouth midweek according to the paper and the favourably report back as Moyes considering a new bid. Ledley is out of contract next summer and the club want him to sign a new one but it looks like everyone from his agent Dave Baldwin to Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale are playing a waiting game for the end of the transfer window 31st Monday at midnight.

Everton are second from bottom in the Premier League at the time of writing after a very poor start to the season and defeat today at Burnley could force the Everton boss into the transfer marker. They, Everton are still in a battle with Manchester City over Joleon Lescott the player wants to join the Arab rich club and looks to have got his own way that will leave Moyes with around £25m to spend in seven days before the window closes.

A source closer to the player told the League Paper, “City would loose millions on Ledley if he doesn’t renew his deal or at least sign a contract extension. The compensation Cardiff would receive for Joe would be around £2m – a fraction of his true market value.
“The player is in a position of strength and it is obvious that his advisor Baldwin knows that.”

In a recent interview Dave Jones was banging on about compensation but I cannot see the compensation panel ordering someone to cough up £6m for Ledley if it when to the panel. I cannot remember the last time a club has praised the panel for getting it right. Taking about Ledley Chairman Peter Ridsdale admitted, “We are only a Championship club and if a bigger club came in for Joe we would take a hard look at the situation. I would always take a player’s best interests into account. We are building a decent squad of players.
“Raising cash is not a priority although we do need to look at one substantial sale every summer because of the club’s financial position.”