Ten days after turning down a move to Sevco for family reasons Joleon Lescott has joined AEK Athens- 2,200 miles from his home in Manchester.
Mark Warburton used his personal charm to visit Lescott and talk over the benefits of joining last season’s Scottish Cup runners up.
The out of favour Aston Villa defender seemed keen enough on the deal but when he arrived at the state-of-the-art Murray Park training complex the deal fell apart.
BBC Scotland claimed that Lescott had failed a medical while Warbo said that the deal failed due to the defender not wanting to move away from his family in Manchester.
Joleon Lescott has signed for AEK! Strangest transfer of the window? pic.twitter.com/91M9Bfe8FT
— Betfair (@Betfair) August 29, 2016
Critically Aston Villa told their fans the deal was off due to personal terms although they were prepared to pay a substantial part of his £35,000/week wages.
Today it emerged that Lescott had passed a Greek medical, agreed terms with AEK while keeping his family happy at the same time.
Responding to claims that he had misled Lescott over personal terms Warbo said: “Personal terms were all agreed but the player just decided to keep his family in Manchester. He’s well settled with three young children. It’s absolute nonsense to say anything other than that.
“The fact he’s up here tells you that terms were agreed and there wasn’t a problem with that.
“It’s a big decision on the player’s part and we understand that. But it’s nothing to do with what I’ve read in the papers.
“We know what happened, the player knows what happened. To take your three young kids out of school is a big call on his part and we respect it. It’s unfortunate but we wish him all the best.”
CLICK HERE for Sutton laughs off muzzled claim.
CLICK HERE for Celtic in demand from England and Atlantic League.