David Moyes discussed the importance of potential European qualification to his transfer plans ahead of Everton's trip to Arsenal
David Moyes speaks in his pre-match press conference to preview Everton's trip to Arsenal
David Moyes speaks in his pre-match press conference to preview Everton's trip to Arsenal
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David Moyes admits qualifying for Europe could be the key to boosting Everton’s summer transfer plans after what he described as an “unbelievable” number of players rejected moves to Hill Dickinson Stadium ahead of the current season.
The Blues were just one point above the relegation zone when Moyes, who steered them to nine top-eight finishes including a highest-ever Premier League position of fourth in 2004/05, returned in January last year.
However, after guiding the team to safety with five fixtures to spare and finishing 13th in their historic final season at Goodison Park, the team currently sit eighth in the table with nine matches to go this term and in contention for a European qualification place for the first time since 2017.
When appearing at a fan event in New York City last July ahead of Everton’s participation in the Premier League Summer Series, Moyes declared that they needed nine or 10 new players by the start of the season and while he ultimately got to the former figure when Merlin Rohl joined from Freiburg on deadline day, in a window when the club had significant money to spend for the first time in several years, he also lamented the targets he was unable to acquire.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference for the Blues trip to Arsenal on Saturday evening, the 62-year-old said: “I said in the summer, I was probably more surprised by the amount of players that didn’t want to come to Everton than the ones that we did get.
“It was unbelievable the amount of players I spoke to, who I tried to get here, and I couldn’t get them to come but that’s because of the problematic situation that had been around Everton.
“Also, if you want really good players, a lot of them want to be in Europe.
“That’s why, for us to build quick, and the quicker I get the team into Europe, and next year if we were fortunate enough to do it, I might be saying: ‘My goodness, I can’t believe I was saying that because of the workload and what might come with it.’
“But I think it we want to get the level of players that we’d like to get in the next window and the windows coming up, I think Europe is really important.”