Think you are barking up the wrong tree, the money for Jeffers would be crazy today never mind 11 years ago. If Jeffers wanted to stay so bad, why did he accepted Arsenal's contract offer? Etc etc.

As to your last argument, which we've often heard levelled at players who said they didn't want to leave the club — it has no merit. As soon as a player is sent that message, there is absolutely no point in trying to stay against the all-conquering power of the business imperative.

See Gary Speed, Duncan Ferguson, Gary Lineker, Alan Ball, Tommy Lawton, Dixie Dean... etc etc.

But that's not the original thrust of the post is it? It's nothing new, lots of clubs do it - move players on who don't want to go, paint them to be the ones pushing for the move, usually tied to a paid-up NDA ironically called a Loyalty Payment.

Who is or isn't in football?

Mr Moyes was again constantly praising "His Chairman" yesterday on Sky and telling us how much he "trusts" him.

Mind you, Mr Moyes said many times how tremendous Reading and their manager were, as he did before the game on Saturday.

Makes interesting viewing, reading and opinion on who said and did what and what effect those opinions and comments had/has on EFC.

Rhetorical really given his litany of bullshit which I'll leave others to quote.

Yes, football people are notoriously economical with the truth; the real question is whether Bill puts his own interests before the club's.

I have no doubt of the answer.

Jeffers did not request a transfer, he was told he wasn't needed and would be sold on; feigned shock horror by BK was all pantomime, more BS from the ringmaster.

BK did not lie, he was laughing at the time...

Clearly that was not the same recollection of Jeffers. I guess he should know..

Either way - it is irrelevant. Without Super Kev he was an ordinary player and not the first member of a partnership who was never the same without the other 1/2.

Good business by EFC to get rid. He had an opportunity to come back and failed.

As most posters have said, it was a good bit of business for us at the time.

Jeffers is just the latest in a line of ex-players from different clubs who, when their career is on the slide, take the silver shilling and slag off their former employers or give their version of events.

Saying that "I guess he should know.. " only adds to the viewpoint that Jeffers is right. Does that mean that Albert Dunlop, who claimed that all the Everton players in his era were drugged up, or Joe Harper who couldn't wait to slag Everton off, were also right? The fact that they were being paid for their "story" would, surely, taint their version of events.

I mean, if he just said that everything was fine and that Arsenal bought him but he just wasn't good enough, there wouldn't be any interest, would there?

(Don't think I'm siding with Bill, I just get pissed off with people like Jeffers.)

No doubt Jeffers was one of the many players going through the Goodison exit door that the Kenwright regime has stitched up. Although, with hindsight, we got a brilliant price for a player who achieved next to nothing during his career.

Did he ever manage to score for Rangers in his time there.

Not sticking up for Kenwright but take any notice of Mr Jeffers .... no thanks.

We sold him and Ball (slightly after) and got £14.5 mil for the pair. But, besides covering the debt, did the sales help us particularly? I'd argue, with the exception of Carsley, an emphatic no. They were replaced with garbage.

If Ball and Jeffers were there for the start of the Moyes era, he might have been able to use them effectively, and if not, sold them and used the money to buy players he did want. Then there is the rise of Rooney. Having his mate up front with him, might have brought more out of him / encouraged him to stay longer.

I don't like Jeffers and was happy at the time when we got £8 mil for him, I was devastated to lose Ball. This story just made me think how things might have been different if we had held on to them for the start of the Moyes era.

However, I wouldn't trust a player, I wouldn't trust a chairman, and I wouldn't trust a manager. Transfer request on the opening day of the season, fining your captain and shitting on his good name, so many lies spread by the power working the media. The only names I miss above – the fans. Cynical? You bet.

I couldn't care less when Jeffers left as, after his blistering start in '99, he became more renowned for wage demands and injury. Ball's departure was gutting though as he was a classy left back and, from memory, the player of the year when we sold him.

However, although I like your rationale about a missed opportunity for Moyes with these two, without their sales and the replacement dirge, I don't think things would have come to a head in such a way the following March to finally bring about Wally's sacking. With our best two first team kids gone and the squad being a clapped out mess, we desperately required a shake up. Enter Moyes.

I wouldn't trust either of them as far as I could throw them.

But with regards to Jeffers, who cares? It's one player against a chairman, and the original story on the Telegraph, I'm not really sure what Kenwright would do to "put it out" that Jeffers turned down that contract. There's no quote from anything from Everton.

I don't trust Jeffers, and to be honest my trust for Kenwright is getting lesser.

But calling him a liar based on what Jeffers said? Completely bollocks and irrelevant, it's hearsay. My example should have happened.

Btw to Glynn Parry, are you the Glynn Parry who used to live in Anglesey and then moved up north? Would be great if it was!

Why not?