EXCLUSIVE: The fall-out to Everton's transfer window and the implications for The Friedkin Group have been discussed by Pat Nevin
Everton manager David Moyes and (inset): Ryan and Dan Friedkin take in a Roma game (top); Dan Friedkin's son-in-law Rishi Majithia with chief executive Angus Kinnear (bottom) during Everton's 2-2 draw against Manchester United on Sunday
Everton manager David Moyes and (inset): Ryan and Dan Friedkin take in a Roma game (top); Dan Friedkin's son-in-law Rishi Majithia with chief executive Angus Kinnear (bottom) during Everton's 2-2 draw against Manchester United on Sunday
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Former Everton star Pat Nevin admits he doesn’t know who to blame for the club’s “horrible" transfer window but has told The Friedkin Group they need to understand what a “fantastic manager” they have in David Moyes to guide them through the situation.
Despite pocketing over £100million on deadline day with Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam and Nathan Patterson all sold plus Adam Aznou loaned out, following the late collapse of the purchase of USA World Cup star Folarin Balogun from Monaco, the Blues were left with a first team squad that contains just one striker, one left-back and one right-back – Ainsley Maitland-Niles who has only just arrived.
Nevin, speaking courtesy of Betpack, who joined Everton from Chelsea for £925,000 and made 150 appearances between 1988-92, scoring 21 goals, told the ECHO: “It’s hard to know who to blame, but here’s where we are. David Moyes brought Everton from a team that was struggling every year to being comfortable and maybe even looking at Europe.
“That’s extraordinary considering the club was looking at relegation year after year. So, he brought them to this safety and security, and what he expected to do was build from that foundation.
“Instead, nothing happened. You’ve got the smallest squad almost imaginable for a Premier League team, with no wiggle room whatsoever. Whoever came up with the idea of possibly selling Harrison Armstrong, that showed a real lack of understanding.
“Now, I don’t know if you’re aiming that at the transfer committee or the ownership saying they’re not investing to that level. They might argue that they got into financial trouble before and aren’t doing that again but in reality, I just don’t think it’s that.
“There’s the possibility of naivety. The club is not set up right for what it needs to be because they’ve got relatively new owners, so it could be a lot of things and angling at one individual is dead easy, but it’s almost always not just that.
“The one group of people who aren’t to blame are the fans who’ve turned up in huge numbers, the players who have put effort in despite real difficulties, and of course the manager, who has been stunning. I just hope, and I’m not convinced yet, that the owners understand what a fantastic man and manager they’ve got there.”
Chief executive Angus Kinnear – who runs Everton on a day-to-day basis for The Friedkin Group – has come under fire after, on the eve of the new season, he appeared to put pressure on David Moyes to deliver European football by declaring: “This window again, I think we will spend more than most of our competitors, the owners are very keen to back us,” and remarking that TFG “have bought Everton to win football matches.”
However, once the window closed, Everton were down in 15th place among Premier League clubs when it comes to net spend and were one of just half a dozen teams to make a trading profit.
Nevin, who worked as a CEO himself at Motherwell, said: “Are the new owners wanting to sell already to make a quick profit and move on? That was spoken about a lot at Hill Dickinson Stadium at the weekend but I don’t know.
“Was it naivety? I hope not.
“To have such a bad transfer window, are they trying to be sensible with money? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem to make that much sense seeing as they had a centre-forward in the building in Folarin Balogun.
“In the end, it’s just been a horrible transfer window, and it’s the easiest thing in the world to blame one person when there's always politics further behind it. We shall find out, and I think we’ll know in January where the reasoning for that lies.
“Because if you don’t strengthen in January, or even before then by getting free agents, fans will have every right to worry. At the moment, clinging on with that sort of fight works for a while, but you need more depth for a whole season.”
However, the 63-year-old has backed his fellow Glaswegian Moyes – who revealed last week that owner Dan Friedkin has never spoken to him, despite him steering Everton to nine top-eight finishes, including their highest ever Premier League position of fourth in his first spell in charge – to bring the best out of a tight knit squad in the tough conditions he now faces. Nevin said: “David Moyes will create a siege mentality, he’ll do that. That’s what he does.
“He didn’t want to do that, he wanted to grow something else. He’s so well known for that siege mentality and ‘dogs of war’ fighting, getting the best out of players and putting midfields at left-back etc to get a tune out of them.
“Working on a shoestring, he’d rather not have that, I promise you. He actually mentioned it in one of his interviews.
“He said: ‘I don’t want to be there. I want to be someone who’s up at the top of the league and pushing and chasing there.’
“If you look at the style of the players he was getting last year, he had Jack Grealish in last season, going back again this season, you’ve got Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, you’ve got Charly Alcaraz. There’s loads of creative, attacking players.
“So yes, he’ll do that fight, but it’s not what he wanted. Another great line from Moysey in the middle of all the madness on transfer deadline day was a big, outstanding statement where he said to the fans: ‘Remember, I’m an Evertonian.’ Whatever happens, whoever runs things: ‘I’m an Evertonian.’ And he is.
“He’ll do anything to fight for the club and the fans, and that’s what he’ll do this season under difficult circumstances.”