Gosling's agent tries to take the pi$$

Everton have released a statement about the Gosling debacle and the subsequent mudsling by his agent :

In the wake of a report in a Sunday newspaper in which the agent of Dan Gosling made a series of allegations, Everton Football Club has decided to take the unprecedented step of setting straight a record of recent events which has, in its opinion, been deliberately distorted.

In the article, Mr David Hodgson suggested that not only did this Club not wish to extend Mr Gosling's stay at Goodison Park but that it had been deliberately tardy with regard to the formal offer of a new contract, presuming that an injury sustained by the player during the course of last season was of such a serious nature it would prevent him from signing for another club.

Both claims are ludicrous, totally without substance and grossly misleading.

The manager of Everton, David Moyes, and the Chairman, Bill Kenwright, contacted Mr Hodgson in November of last year to jointly offer Dan Gosling a new contract.

Several subsequent conversations took place during the course of which Mr Hodgson not only indicated that the deal offered would be "fine" but also reaffirmed that a "hand-shake agreement" was in place dating back to when Mr Gosling joined the Club as a 17 year-old in January 2008.

It was Everton's understanding that this Gentleman's agreement would guarantee that the player would extend, by at least two years, the three-year deal he signed upon his arrival from Plymouth Argyle.

"In the very long history of our Club, our executive team have never once forgotten or neglected to deal properly and professionally with contractual matters," said Mr Kenwright. "We place our trust in people; we always keep our side of any offered deal - and all we have ever asked is that others do the same."

Everton's CEO, Robert Elstone, confirmed that the Club had wished to extend Mr Gosling's stay on Merseyside.

"We wanted Dan Gosling to stay with us - and, after what we had been told, we expected him to stay with us. However, in the first week in June, Mr Hodgson rang David Moyes seemingly content that he had manoeuvred a situation where Dan was a free agent," he said.

Mr Moyes confirmed that he had spoken - on several occasions - to both player and agent in relation to Mr Gosling's progress and future.

"Dan came to see me and told me that he saw himself as a central midfield player rather than someone who operated in a wide position," he said. " I did not think at that point that he would get into the Everton team as a central midfield player.

"I was always fully aware of the handshake agreement which Dave Hodgson had with a senior Club official regarding Dan's fourth and fifth years - and because of that agreement there wasn't, in my opinion, any necessity to put anything in writing. The first I knew of a problem was when Dave rang me to say that Dan's contract had lapsed and that he would be seeking to leave us on a free transfer.

"I told Dave that he had an agreement with the Club which he was now reneging on. We scouted Dan Gosling and brought him in when several other Premier League clubs looked but did not purchase.

"We feel aggrieved that they have contrived a situation to get the player out of the Club when, if he had come and said that he wanted to leave, we could at least have done something about it - but at no point did Dan say he wished to leave.

"I read at the weekend that he cried when he didn't receive a formal, written offer. Well, trust me, the money Everton were offering was certainly not a crying matter," he added.

The Premier League tribunal found that as Everton had relied upon both a verbal and a Gentleman's agreement and had not put a contractual offer in written form before the acknowledged deadline, Mr Gosling was entitled to leave the Club on a free transfer.

Dan Gosling's goal re-enacted by tic tacs

Got to laugh at this :



Great marketing

These are fun too :













Article ref : 118DG3210

Gooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll

Somehow this just makes it even better :



Better than this anyway :



Absolutely criminal that, all my life ITV have been cack at showing footy....surely this is the nail in the coffin.

It's emerged that they caused Dan Gosling's mum to miss her son's magic moment

Dan Gosling's mother missed Everton goal due to ITV advertising blunder

Coverage of the fourth-round replay was interrupted in the 118th minute when the broadcaster cut to an advertising break.

When the live match footage returned, Everton players were celebrating a goal by Gosling, who had broken the 0-0 stalemate. Hundreds of fans complained to the channel.

Hilary Gosling said she was among the viewers left frustrated by the incident.

"We just didn't know what was going on," she told the Mirror. "The TV pictures of the match were suddenly replaced by an advert."

"When the pictures came back, all the Everton players were on the ground. I said, 'I think that's Dan at the bottom of the pile'.

"Then the commentator said Dan had scored and we all went mad. We were jumping up and down and I was crying with excitement. There were tears and laughter, we were overjoyed.

"The first time I saw the goal was when they showed the replay. I'm so proud of him I just can't put it into words."

Sean Houlahan, Gosling's step-father, told the newspaper: "When the picture went off we were all accusing each other of touching the remote control. It happened so quickly we wondered what the devil was happening. The ball had just gone to the right wing with Everton on the attack when it flashed on to the advert.

"The next pictures we got were of all the Everton players piled on top of each other.

"We were screaming because we knew Everton had scored but we didn't know it was Dan – it was torture."