By LEWIS STEELE, FOOTBALL REPORTER
Published: 17:30 EST, 5 December 2025 | Updated: 17:30 EST, 5 December 2025
David Moyes believes he can use the reinvention of Jack Grealish as a bargaining pitch for future transfer targets.
By showing prospective signings how the Manchester City loanee has gone from unwanted and out of form at the Etihad to a fan favourite and back to his best with Everton, Moyes believes he can tempt future players to join the club and follow a similar journey.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, out of favour at Chelsea before his summer move, is another success story for Moyes, who said: ‘I tried (selling the club to targets) in the summer but I didn't get much joy.
'If you had been looking at Everton over the last few years – and I am not being critical of anyone – you may have had question marks.
‘The people who come now see the stadium, the team building, us trying to be out there in the market to be competitive. If we do that, we may be able to attract players who we couldn’t maybe last summer.
Jack Grealish celebrates his late winner at Bournemouth on Tuesday night
David Moyes congratulations Grealish after the vital win that lifted Everton to 10th
‘I would expect anyone to (want to) come to Everton. I was shocked when people were saying they didn’t want to come.
'The ones we could sign in the early days (Moyes’s first reign), most were saying they would love to.
‘I get so much pride in getting players in the England team. Ozzie (Leon Osman), I got more pleasure in getting him in the squad than anything, it was 10 years of him playing well and sticking at it. If I could get Kiernan, Jimmy (Garner) into the team, that would give me pleasure.’
Moyes, meanwhile, says he hopes Everton can twist Manchester City’s arm to sign 30-year-old Grealish for less than the £50million fee written into his loan agreement that would make the deal permanent.
‘I am sure we would have to alter that,’ said Moyes ahead of Saturday's meeting with his predecessor Sean Dyche and Nottingham Forest.
‘I don’t think we would be in that ball game and let’s be fair adding everything into it, his age, it would be very difficult to pay that sort of money.’
Grealish will also have just one year left on his City deal come the summer and Moyes added: ‘I think I am still giving him the electric prod, keep going and making sure I am getting more out of him every week.
‘He is not too old but he is getting to the wrong age. He has to keep showing what he is capable of doing. He has done fine and covered most of the 90-minute games. He is doing well.
Grealish is mobbed by fans in August after victory at Wolves, just his fourth match for the club
‘I use the example of Jesse Lingard. I took him to West Ham and nearly begged Jesse to come to us again because we really liked him. Jesse came and scored 10 goals or something in 15 games and got himself back in the England squad.
‘They are different players and different situations but he probably thought he was going back to play for Manchester United and he didn’t at the time.
'If he had stayed he would have been great for West Ham, especially with how well he had done.’
Moyes is managing a selection crisis ahead of the visit of Forest. Idrissa Gana Gueye and Tim Iroegbunam (five yellow cards) are suspended, while defenders Seamus Coleman and Jarrad Branthwaite remain out injured.
Michael Keane and Merlin Rohl are big doubts, too.
EvertonJack Grealish