The teenage striker was hardly a regular performer in the Everton side anyway, though as a result of Moyes's protectionist policy. The sting, Gravesen insists, came in the criticism aimed at the entire Everton squad.He added: "It hurt us when everyone said, 'You're no good You don't belong in the League' and 'You will be relegated'. You want to prove them wrong and I think that's in every man's nature I don't think it's because of one person [Rooney] leaving. When you corner a guy he will do anything to get out of that and I think the whole squad have shown that a cornered person is stronger than a free one."It is a sentiment that Moyes shares. The Scot said: "First we want to be safe, but I have greater ambitions for this club and I don't see why we can't stay up there. Maybe it's down to the fact we've only had 18 or 19 players to pick from It's meant we've had stability. It may work against us in time and we have the ability to add a few players in January, but at the moment the size of the squad has been to our benefit."Moyes' next task is to keep that squad together, including Gravesen, who is still stalling on renewing his contract.

He is relatively confident of keeping his star man happy, just as Ars? Wenger was when Real Madrid asked Patrick Vieira out to play last summer, and added: "We have a good relationship What the outcome will be I don't know yet. Tommy wants to play in Europe and we're not in a bad position to help him get it."He's really well liked here and from that point of view it's not always the best thing to do to move. He wants to see that we're going to make progress as well and hopefully we'll be able to show that in the coming months. We think this is going to be a good club to be at in the future."It sounds as if the Grave Digger might agree. He concluded: "Rumours are there because of the game and we can't comment on every rumour.

At the moment everybody is focused so hard on the job for Everton The rumours are OK for the game, but not for our club.". Martin Jol springs from his seat and turns over an A1 flipchart to reveal a cartoon character with a huge grin and messy hair "Jermain [Defoe] drew that for me," he says. "I wanted him to show how he feels [when he scores]." Martin Jol springs from his seat and turns over an A1 flipchart to reveal a cartoon character with a huge grin and messy hair "Jermain [Defoe] drew that for me," he says. That is not a criticism of my team because they do give 100 per cent, the best We have a good mentality but we want a top mentality. A player like Defoe has a good mentality but if he wants to play for Arsenal or Spurs next year, when they are a big team, he needs to have a top mentality."Jol gives an example, as is his wont. "When you get a corner against [Aston] Villa and you are short [of reaching the cross] by maybe 10cm - my missus might say 20cm - then you don't have a top mentality.