David Moyes believes there are "very good" players still out there as the Everton boss calls for transfer window to end with new faces
David Moyes during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
David Moyes during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images
David Moyes accepts Everton may need to "adjust" in the final days of the transfer window to ensure he has a squad capable of pushing the club forward. The Blues have started the season short of players in key areas, a reality that bit at Leeds United when combined with the defensive injuries suffered in the build-up to the first game of the season.
With just over a week left to do business, Moyes remains intent on bringing in players he genuinely likes - and Friday's breakthrough in the pursuit of Tyler Dibling is proof opportunities to get top targets like him are still available. But he also acknowledged that, should problems in attracting primary targets continue, Everton cannot afford to simply not sign anyone at all.
Blues chiefs insist the plan is still to bring in at least three new faces and that the club has the finances to pursue ambitious signings. But a feature of the manager's summer interviews has been his surprise and disappointment at the struggle to convince top players to join his rebuild.
He repeated that position ahead of the game against Brighton, the first competitive fixture at the stunning new Hill Dickinson Stadium.
He said: “I see Everton as a huge club and a great attraction. We finished incredibly strongly last season but my take on it is that we are probably going for players who are already playing for teams in the Champions League, or they want to go to teams who are in the Champions League or Europa League. A lot of the players we want are at that level and don’t want to drop away from that.”
The Blues boss said there was no complacency heading into the summer, one that started with the exit of a dozen senior players who had either been on loan or whose contracts expired.
He explained: “I don’t think we will cure Everton in one transfer window, I never thought that was the case. We brought one loan player in in January, so we didn’t do any business then. We waited until now but it has proved to be a difficult summer for Everton because there have been a lot of players we fancied who we have not been able to convince it is the place to go at the moment.”
While he hoped for more success in the market, he is pleased with the foundations laid this summer, with seven new signings including high-profile names like Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish. Dibling would be a further coup.
With such little time left, the target for the rest of the window is now to ensure he is not left short of manpower - though two names linked to the club in recent days, Nathan Ake and Jamie Vardy, are not thought to top his wish list.
When asked about the requirement for more players on Friday, Moyes accepted that might mean having to gamble in some positions but, with the team devoid of options in some areas, there is a belief that not signing anyone would present a bigger risk.
He said: “There’s a bigger chance of getting it wrong but if we can’t get them what do we do, go without them completely? We are going to have to bring in players to fill opportunities and hopefully they’ll turn out well for us… I think at the moment we can only think about what we do just now. We are so short.
"We had five players on loan last year plus those players coming out of contract. It’s meant that we’ve been really fighting to get a level of player in. If you can’t get the ones you want, what do you do?
"We are short of players at the moment and we need to bring players in. I’m not being disrespectful when I say we’re [looking] down the ladder. Some of the players who I hope we bring in are very good players. We are trying to bring in players who have Premier League experience and can help us, especially in the first year at the new stadium."
Filling those positions on the right is a priority, with the club hoping Dibling will offer one such boost to Moyes, as well as adding depth to the central midfield.
Injuries at the back, particularly to Vitalii Mykolenko and Jarrad Branthwaite, have troubled Moyes too - leading the Scot to play James Garner at left back at Elland Road. Both will miss the game against Brighton, meaning he might need to resort to another experimental effort to solve his left back problem.
The defensive problems, which have included injuries to Adam Aznou, Nathan Patterson and, at the end of last season, James Tarkowski, have become an issue that is now impacting his thinking on transfers.
He concluded: “It just shows that if we do get injuries to them we are pretty flimsy really. We have to cover that. It has probably changed our course of direction at the moment because of that situation.
“We’ve been trying to add attacking players to our front line in the main but obviously you can see we are short of defenders now as well.”