A late deal for Monaco forward Folarin Balogun collapsed and has left the Everton manager with only one recognised central striker in a squad that is now without Iliman Ndiaye
David Moyes, Manager of Everton, looks on
David Moyes has been left with one hand tied behind his back(Image: Getty Images)
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Jack Grealish never removed Everton from one of his social media profiles, even though he had gone back to Manchester City. Grealish could not stop talking about how much he loved life at Everton.
He had not featured in Manchester City’s squad for their win at Crystal Palace on Friday, August 28. No clubs were interested in making Grealish, whose Etihad contract expires at the end of this season, a permanent transfer.
The return of the 30-year-old midfielder to Hill Dickinson Stadium was a formality. Yet it was a formality that did not happen until an hour or so ahead of the transfer window closing.
In the grand scheme of Everton's awful window, it is only a minor point, but a significant one. Grealish should have been done and dusted long before the deadline, allowing Everton executives to completely focus on sorting out the mess that their pursuit of a striker had become.
No wonder Folarin Balogun decided to walk away from the shambles and go back to playing in front of one man and his Ferrari in Monaco. It was amateur hour.
How else can you describe a transfer window that has left David Moyes with a squad smaller than he had when it started? How else can you describe a transfer window that has left Moyes with one striker?
And that striker is Thierno Barry. Don’t forget, only five clubs scored fewer than Everton’s 47 Premier League goals last season.
Thierno Barry celebrates dcoring for Everton
Thierno Barry has been left as Everton's only senior centre-forward(Image: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
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Barry scored a bagful against Preston reserves the other night but in 41 appearances last season, he scored eight goals. And a couple of them went in off his backside. Lovely lad, great attitude, but not a bona fide Premier League line-leader.
He was not even top of Everton’s Premier League scoring list last season. That honour - with the grand total of nine - went to Beto, who was then sold to Fiorentina.
He was no Harry Kane, Beto, and he was in the last year of his contract, but he was better than having no alternative to Barry. Instead, he was sold before another striker’s services were secured. Amateur hour.
Just for good measure, of course, Everton then sold their best player, Iliman Ndiaye, for £65million, to Manchester City. It is a good, lucrative move for Ndiaye but he had three years left on his Everton contract.
Iliman Ndiaye of Everton looks on during the Premier League 2026/27 match between AFC Bournemouth and Everton at Vitality Stadium on August 29, 2026 in Bournemouth, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Everton have sold Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City for £65million(Image: Mike Hewitt, Getty Images)
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The club could have said no, just as Liverpool did when City asked for Cody Gakpo. Instead, Ndiaye went with the club’s best wishes.
This is also the club that was about to make a quick buck by selling a 19-year-old local lad who had come through the academy to Nottingham Forest. They called off Harrison Armstrong’s £35million move to the City Ground after supporters threatened mutiny.
Well, it will certainly be mutinous if Manchester United arrive and take advantage of Moyes’ limited options at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday. But in a distinctly unwelcome way for the manager, it has probably strengthened his own position.
After a reasonably encouraging start to the Premier League season - a home win over Crystal Palace and a draw at Bournemouth - any downturn will now be put firmly at the door of owners The Friedkin Group, chief executive Angus Kinnear and the recruitment department. And rightly so.
Jack Grealish points at a fellow player
Jack Grealish will be back in an Everton shirt this season(Image: Getty Images)
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The news that Everton were scrabbling around for striking alternatives late on deadline evening - asking Manchester United for Joshua Zirkzee and Aston Villa for Tammy Abraham - was simply embarrassing. But at least they got a player who would have walked from Manchester to Merseyside to sort the loan deal out himself.
Grealish might do great things for Everton but he is no miracle worker. And neither is Moyes. Ahead of this season, Kinnear said: “Everybody is thinking about how we mount a challenge for Europe and don’t fade in the last critical matches.” Everybody, it seems, but himself and the owners.
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