David Moyes has been talking about squad building ahead of Everton's trip to Bournemouth
David Moyes has revealed that Jacob Ramsey is one of the players Everton missed out on in the summer transfer window as he outlined his recruitment stance for January. Ramsey, who hails from the same Great Barr area of Birmingham as Blues central midfielder Tim Iroegbunam, joined Newcastle United from Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee on August 17, understood to be in the region of £40million.
The 24-year-old came on as a substitute for the Magpies in their 4-1 win at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday but so far he’s only played more than 45 minutes once in the Premier League under Eddie Howe in his half dozen outings for his new club.
Moyes has spoken before about the number of players that turned Everton down over the summer – citing the lure of European football from nine of their Premier League rivals – as, under new owners The Friedkin Group, the Blues actually had money to spend after several windows of PSR restrictions. The Blue boss said of Ramsey: “He chose not to come.
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“He was one of that group and if you look at their subs – Sandro Tonali didn’t start for them. They have a really strong team and beating Manchester City gives you an idea of where they are at.”
Given that Newcastle United are, on paper at least, the richest football club on the planet and back competing in the Champions League – despite their 1-0 home defeat to Everton in the final game of last season – Moyes does not believe it is a contentious comment to suggest they’re on a different level than the Blues right now.
He said: “Not at all, let’s be fair, Newcastle have probably been building for four years now.
“Their owners have backed the club and they have had some financial problems as well, watching that they don’t spend too much, but they have attracted some brilliant players to Newcastle. It has given them a chance of being really competitive.
“They have just beaten Man City last week and that is why Newcastle are probably one of the strongest teams now. That is why they finished fifth last season, it is a strong team.”
The 62-year-old also acknowledges that getting Everton to that kind of level will not be a quick fix.
Moyes said: “It will take transfer windows, but I think it will take time as well. We will have time to find out what the ownership is going to bring to the club.
“If you want to refer to Newcastle their ownership has shown what they have done. They have gone out and tried to bring in a level of player.
“We will need to see what our ownership does. There are other ownerships that haven’t provided but we are hoping that over the transfer windows in the coming years the Friedkins will provide which we need to try and keep stepping up.”
So, will Everton be dipping their toes in the New Year sales? Moyes said: “I’d be hoping we would be looking to do some business if we can. January is never a great window when trying to get the right value and the right players who you might want, but I think if we could add to it we certainly will.
“We didn’t do it last January – we just had Charly Alcaraz come in on loan. We might be looking at the loan market again and seeing what we need.
“Certainly, the people who do the job are working behind the scenes to see what might be possible.”
Just how much recruitment Everton do in January could depend on results over this next month. Asked whether he felt the 1-0 win at Manchester United in their previous game was more of a reflection as to where they’re at than the 4-1 defeat to Newcastle United, Moyes said: “I hope so. I just think Newcastle’s experience [was crucial], playing games regular now and realising how they can try and get through Champions League games, I think it’s only a couple of weeks ago that they were playing Barcelona at St James’ Park and then going away to Marseille and trying to find a way to win. “So, coming to us, they were able to do it. They got a goal in the first minute and I think it drained a little bit of our energy, it really did. “It took the wind out of us a wee bit. We actually played very well for periods in the first half up until the second goal – we’re learning a lot as we go along.”
In terms of what he learned about his players against the Magpies, the Glaswegian gaffer added: “We probably know everything about them already. Probably the things that we’ve got concerns about show up at different moments. “Overall, the players have been great. They’ve done so well, so we’re not going to talk about them too much or criticise them too much for their performance.”