DAVID Moyes appears to be waging a one-man campaign to turn Saturday's Goodison Park clash into a grudge match.

For a man who, four years ago, berated his fellow managers for talking too much about other clubs and other players, he seems to have developed an unhealthy, green-eyed obsession with Manchester City.

This week he has taken another pot-shot at the Blues, criticising the acquisition of Patrick Vieira as bad for English football. Be wary when any Scotsman starts talking about what is good for English football.

It all began last summer when he and Hughes had a gripping tug-of-war over Joleon Lescott, before the City signed the defender for £24m.

To some extent, you could understand him grouching but then you remember that Everton have flexed their superior financial muscle to take players from less wealthy clubs, during Moyes' tenure and any sympathy quickly evaporates.

And the fact that the Toffees picked up a more than generous fee for Lescott also lessens the legitimacy of Moyes' grumbles.

At the heart of his moans was the fact that Hughes did not involve himself in the negotiation process. He stuck to City's modus operandi - he identified the target, then left it to chief executive Garry Cook and football administrator Brian Marwood to thrash out a deal.

That narked Moyes, who likes to think he has total control of Everton's transfer policy, and even went so far as to describe City's pursuit of Lescott as 'disgusting'.

That episode appears to have tainted his view of the Blues ever since - such was the bad feeling surrounding the transfer that both clubs were somewhat relieved when the meeting scheduled for the first week of the season, was postponed due to Everton's European involvement. It still has to be re-arranged.

But, with the reverse fixture upon us, Moyes has turned his fire on City again, perhaps in a clumsy attempt at mind games.

Asked about the arrival of Vieira, he claimed it was bad news for City's Academy.

Moyes view

"I'm sure there will be a lot of young players at City who will be disappointed at not getting the chance they might have otherwise done," he said.

"It might turn out to be a good move for City but, if you're asking me if it is good for English football, then I'm not so sure. I think a lot of people would like to see young British players given that sort of chance."

Perhaps a lot of people would also like to see youngsters given a chance rather than Everton spending £5.3m on 32-year-old Frenchman Sylvain Distin, or bringing in American Landon Donovan who, if he scores a goal or two in the World Cup in June, won't be doing much good for English football.

To be fair, Everton are better than most Premier League clubs at developing and blooding young players - James Vaughan, Jack Rodwell and Leon Osman spring to mind.

But in recent weeks City have handed a debut to Dedryck Boyata, a first start to Vlad Weiss and involved Andrew Tutte, Abdi Ibrahim and Kieran Trippier in the first team squad.

No doubt Moyes would prefer his side to line up against rookies like Tutte or Ibrahim rather than a World Cup winner like Vieira.

Perhaps he should recall his words in 2006, when he was annoyed with Arsene Wenger for making comments about Everton.

"There are people with big mouths who are coming out and saying things, that is wrong, you should not talk about other clubs' players, they should just talk about their own," he said.

"I'm not talking about Arsene Wenger, but many other people who should just look after their own clubs and concentrate on their own players."

What do you think? Have your say.