MOYES ON THE LESCOTT SIGNING

David Moyes believes Everton have snapped up the best central defender outside the Premiership.

The Blues completed the signing of Joleon Lescott from Wolves for an undisclosed fee on Wednesday morning.

The 23-year-old defender has signed a four year deal with the Blues and the Everton chief is delighted to have acquired the services of a defender he has been chasing for more than a year.

He told evertontv: "He is someone who we have watched, and watched for quite a long time. He is a player we were interested in last year as well but we were unable to get him. Fortunately this time we have been able to get our man.

"He is another young, up-and-coming player, another British lad and from my point of view he is the best centre-half in the Championship that I have seen. Hopefully he will make the step up.

"This year we have seen people like Daniel Gabbidon and Curtis Davies both step up and look good players in the Premier League, so we are more than hopeful that Joleon will do the same here."

The signing of Lescott following the acquisition of Andy Johnson from Crystal Palace and the deal to bring Tim Howard to Goodison on a season-long loan is part of the manager's plan to add more youthful exuberance to an already young Premiership squad.

He added: "We are trying to bring players to the club who we think are going to be here for the future and we can build a side that hopefully will be able to compete.

"We have now got ourselves a group of players in their early to mid 20s and now the job is for that group to try and build together and grow together and hopefully produce a side that we can all be proud of."