Manchester City have suffered a major setback in their bid to sign Joleon Lescott after Everton manager David Moyes rejected a transfer request by the England defender.
Lescott, 27, submitted his request to leave earlier today (Tues), but Moyes has dismissed out of hand the prospect of selling the former Wolves defender.
City are understood to be ready to make a final offer of £22m for the player following Lescott's decision to go public on his desire to leave Goodison Park for Eastlands.
But Moyes insists that Lescott, currently in Holland ahead of England's friendly in Amsterdam on Wednesday, will not be leaving the Merseyside club.
Moyes said: "Joleon Lescott put in a written transfer request this morning which I immediately rejected.
"We will continue to work with him as we appreciate his many qualities as a player. I have said all along that I have no intention of selling my best players. Joleon is simply not for sale."
City have made offers of £15m and £19m for Lescott already this summer after manager Mark Hughes identified the versatile defender as the ideal man to play at centre-half and also act as cover for Wayne Bridge at full-back.
Having believed that the prospects of signing Lescott were dead on Monday morning, City were given encouragement by sources unrelated to Everton during the day that a deal might yet be possible.
But Everton have maintained throughout the transfer saga that they will not sell and Moyes's rapid rejection of Lescott's transfer request underlines his determination to win out.
With Phil Jagielka set to be sidelined until December with a cruciate knee ligament injury, Moyes is reluctant to weaken his defensive options by selling Lescott.
And City are now preparing to shift their sights elsewhere, with West Ham defender Matthew Upson and Portsmouth's Sylvain Distin now set to be subject of bids before the season opener against Blackburn at Ewood Park on Saturday.
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