By Paul Marshall
September 1 2003

James McFadden has finally left Motherwell and signed for Everton for a fee in the region of 1.25 Million. Faddy finally moved after a season of transfer speculation linking him with moves to Bayer Leverkusen, Rangers , Celtic and even Preston !!!


Everton manager David Moyes has been a long time admirer of the young Scotland star and made an offer of 750,000 on Sunday night which was knocked back by the Fir Park club. SPL rivals Celtic then joined the race to sign McFadden but only wanted him on loan for a season, the bid was laughed off. Everton then came in with an improved bid the club couldn't turn down. Motherwell chairman John Boyle said " The club deeply regrets having to sell such an outstanding player as James at this stage in the new season. However, Everton made an offer the club simply could not refuse. "


" The directors and the manager Terry Butcher did everything possible to keep James at Fir Park but we could not reject Everton's final offer. We wish James well. "


" It is a great opportunity for the player and we hope our fans understand that it was impossible to stop him going to an English Premiership team willing to match the valuation we put on him. "




Faddy's new home


The club's administrator Bryan Jackson told the offical site " Motherwell always said it would not sell any player below their realistic valuation and we abided by that. "


" This also shows that Motherwell has done a tremendous job in developing young players who can graduate to the Scottish Premier League and English Premiership quite early in their careers. "


" Any parent whose son is thinking of a career in football could not start off at a better place. "


" Faddy joined the club as a youngster and has worked his way through our youth set up and made 58 appearances for the first team scoring 32 goals in the process. He has also been rewarded with four full Interantional caps by Scotland coach Berti Vogts and is in line for an appearance this weekend against the Faroes at Hampden. "


McFadden scored 32 goals in 58 appearances for Motherwell which catapulted him into the Scotland squad despite playing for a ' small ' club. He will officially sign for Everton on Tuesday after a medical.


From the Pride of Lanarkshire

Thanks for the memories Faddy and good luck !!!!!





FIXTURE CHANGE

Matches changed for live BBC coverage

Motherwell v Rangers was 18th October @ 3.00pm now 19th October @ 3.00pm


Motherwell v Celtic was 20th December @ 3.00pm now 21st December @ 3.00pm