EVERTON AND CITY SET FOR ARTETA ROWEVERTON are braced for another summer raid from Manchester City – this time for Mikel Arteta.
City have not been put off by last summer’s rancorous saga over their £22million signing of Joleon Lescott from Goodison and are understood to be ready to make a £20m offer for 28-year-old Spaniard Arteta.
With Roberto Mancini identifying creative, attacking midfield players as a priority if City are to launch a title bid next season, he has drawn up an ambitious hit-list including Steven Gerrard, Cesc Fabregas, Joe Cole, James Milner and Arteta.
Gerrard and Barcelona-bound Fabregas were always likely to be non-starters, while Aston Villa have rejected City’s £20m offer for Milner.
Cole and Arteta remain on the radar, with the latter sharing the agent who helped push through Lescott’s transfer.
Mancini is eager to get some business done before the World Cup starts, especially as Arsenal view Arteta as a possible replacement for Fabregas. Arteta, who made a successful comeback in January after 11 months out with a knee ligament injury, has two years left on a contract that is understood to be worth £45,000 a week. He can expect to double that with City.
Everton boss David Moyes does not want to sell even though he could make a staggering £18m profit on a player he picked up for a bargain £2m from Real Sociedad five years ago. But if City follow up their interest by making a firm offer and Arteta indicates he wants to speak to them, then Moyes will not want a repeat of the Lescott affair that dragged on last summer and impacted on Everton’s start.
They were thrashed 6-1 at home on the opening day by Arsenal and failed to get their campaign up and running until December.
The fractious Lescott episode, during which Moyes exchanged angry words with then City boss Mark Hughes, will hardly help smooth any deal for Arteta. And relationships between the two clubs hit rock bottom when Everton won 2-0 at Eastlands in March, with Arteta scoring.
Mancini, Hughes’ replacement, was fined and warned after a touchline altercation with Moyes and City chief executive Garry Cook had a bust-up with an Everton fan in the VIP seats.
In a recent interview with the Daily Express, Moyes warned rival clubs that they should not regard Everton as an easy touch when it comes to transfer dealing.
Referring to the Lescott saga, he said: “I am not bitter about Joleon but I don’t think anybody realised what it did for us. It had a massive effect, but we got over it. It showed me that the team is bigger than any individual.
“Are we susceptible to offers? Of course we are because people look at us and think, ‘We can go to Everton and take their best players’. But if they do, they know they’ll have to come with a very big cheque.”
City could offer £10m-rated Stephen Ireland in a player-plus-cash exchange after he told the club he wants a move after falling out of favour under Mancini. ‘If they want our best players they will need a big cheque’
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/177027/Everton-and-City-set-for-Arteta-row/ 
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