ECHO sports writers answered the question over whether Everton's squad is stronger than 12 months ago after deadline day drama fans would prefer to forget
Everton's Scottish manager David Moyes reacts on the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Bournemouth and Everton at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, southern England on August 29, 2026. (Photo by Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Everton boss David Moyes has been left with a desperately small squad(Image: Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)
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With the dust still settling on one of the most chaotic transfer deadline days in Everton's history, and supporters livid with how it played out, attention will soon have to turn back to the actual football and the little matter of a home clash with rivals Manchester United.
One look at the substitutes bench when the Blues team news drops at 12.45pm on Sunday will ram home just how small a squad manager David Moyes has been left with after a window in which the club let seven first-team players leave while only six were brought in.
But while the quantity is most definitely not there, is the quality better than 12 months ago and after the closure of the 2025 summer transfer window?
Now that the 2026 summer deadline has passed, members of the ECHO sportsdesk have their say....
Connor O'Neill
This is unfortunately a very easy question to answer. The fact Everton finished the transfer window with just 18 outfield players tells you all you need to know.
The Blues are not just weaker than they were last season, they are significantly weaker than they were this time last season.
Despite talk of getting into Europe, one could argue that David Moyes now barely has a squad with the depth to compete in the Premier League.
One centre-forward, one right-back and one left-back, with Moyes now praying that the likes of Jack Grealish, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jarrad Branthwaite stay fit.
There is no denying that the signings of Hayden Hackney, Merlin Rohl and Brennan Johnson were sensible, but losing Iliman Ndiaye is a big blow.
Going to Manchester City is a good, lucrative move for Ndiaye but the same could not be said for the Blues.
Ultimately, David Moyes and Everton’s supporters have been let down by The Friedkin Group, and that tells you all you need to know about this window.
Christopher Beesley
Put quite bluntly, no.
While the jury is still out on Christian Norgaard given the mysterious injury that has prevented him from kicking a ball for his new club so far, I think the recruitment that Everton had been able to do leading up to transfer deadline day was all sound enough.
But it doesn’t matter how clean either your windows or your front step are when the roof is missing off the top of your house. That’s how it feels with the Blues squad now, given there are glaring holes.
Since April, Everton had been telling us that Iliman Ndiaye was not for sale. Despite rejecting several new contract offers, both the player’s father and Ndiaye’s former Blues team-mate and fellow Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, told us he wasn’t going anywhere.
Yet in the final hours of the window, the man who holds a unique place in the club’s history having scored the final goal at Goodison Park and first at Hill Dickinson Stadium was on his way to Manchester City. In a market where the same buyers paid £116million for Elliot Anderson, the £65m Everton recouped did not smack of “something absolutely outrageous” David Moyes said ahead of the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace it would take for his best player – who still had three years to run on his current deal – to go late in the window.
On the same day, the Blues cashed in on Beto who was in the final 12 months of his current contract, but with that deal done before the proposed acquisition of Folarin Balogun collapsed, Moyes has been left with just one recognised striker in his skinny squad of a mere 18 outfield players. He’s also got just one left-back and one right-back and that’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles who arrived on deadline day, but the 29-year-old has stated in the past that it’s not his preferred position.
The whole pursuit – or non-pursuit – of a right-back, given that Kenny Tete’s name cropped up like a bad penny in the final days of the window, was an absolute fiasco.
Paul Wheelock
We've all seen the jokes - Everton must be the only club in the world to have more stadiums that strikers etc etc. You'd laugh if the truth wasn't so painful.
If the Folarin Balogun deal hadn't fell through, then there'd be an argument to suggest Everton's squad was at least as strong as it was 12 months ago. But even then that would have papered over some very big cracks in the way the club appears to being run by The Friedkin Group given their initial willingness to sell Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest - Nottingham Forest! - before a fan revolt made the owners think again.
Evertonians thought the days of the club selling its top, homegrown young talent were gone. Sadly, it seems not, and while Armstrong remains with the club, no sooner could supporters give themselves a pat on the back for forcing TFG into a climbdown, they'd learned that Iliman Ndiaye was being flogged to Tottenham Hotspur - Tottenham Hotspur! - for £60m, which seemed a snip when Spurs had already paid £85m for Savio, a winger who couldn't lace the Senegalese's boots.
But fans could accept Ndiaye going to Manchester City, especially when a large part of that money was ready to be invested in Balogun, who with some justification, the club felt was an upgrade on Beto, but who really shouldn't have been let go until a deal for the USA World Cup star was done, even if the Italian transfer window did close earlier in the day.
Cue all hell breaking loose, and 48 hours after that dramatic transfer collapse, there is a real sense of anger within the fanbase, given the Blues are just one Thierno Barry injury away from a crisis. Throw in the fact a football club the size of Everton have just two senior, recognised full-backs on the books - yes, there are midfielders who can play out of position there - and like Chris says above, it is a 'no' the question asked.
Yes, a right-back has finally signed but how the club arrived at Ainsley Maitland-Niles' signature, which was announced one hour after the window closed, after having had the past 18 months to find a specialist in the role, again raises questions.
It's great to have Jack Grealish back; Brennan Johnson should be an upgrade on Dwight McNeil; it was the right call to make Merlin Rohl's and Tyrique George's moves permanent (though the former was a formality); Hayden Hackney looks a good signing, and Christian Norgaard could be just the type of player needed in midfield whenever he recovers from the injury he is currently nursing. There are positives.
But after what happened on deadline day, David Moyes has been left desperately short in key areas and now all fans can do is get behind the team, who let's not forget, have made a promising start to the season, and hope they are in a good position come the January window when TFG have to rectify the mistakes the club made at the end of the window this summer.