Former West Ham United technical director Tim Steidten got one thing right when talking up the talents of Everton winger Tyler Dibling in the summer of 2025.
The England Under-21 international would stay in the Premier League, rather than head abroad.
Speaking nine months ago, shortly after his departure from West Ham United was confirmed, Steidten opened up on his admiration for Tyler Dibling. He was not the only one at the London Stadium who held the then-Southampton winger in high regard.
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West Ham and Everton combined XI
Hammers News confirmed, during an impressive breakout campaign with the Saints, that head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay was keen to take Dibling to the London Stadium.
Considering the sheer extent of the interest from both at home and abroad, the narrative when Everton completed a £35 million swoop was that David Moyes had pulled off quite the coup.
Former West Ham United target Tyler Dibling has had a nightmare season at Everton
Flash forward to April 2026, however, and as West Ham prepare to host Everton at the London Stadium on Saturday, the only thing Steidten has been proven right on so far is that Dibling was ‘too expensive’ for clubs outside of English shores.
Tyler Dibling during Chelsea FC v Southampton FC - Premier League
Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
“He’s an outstanding player, with that street-football mentality. That special dynamic,” the now-Koln chief told Sky Germany. “He’s a player who can suddenly stop, turn on [the afterburners], and accelerate again.
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“His first touch is outstanding. He has brutal potential. I think he’ll end up being too expensive for a German club.
“So I think he’ll move within England.”
David Moyes is running out of patience with Dibling
Dibling’s debut season at Everton has amounted, thus far, to four Premier League starts, zero goals and zero assists. He is hardly displaying the ‘brutal potential’ Steidten and Macaulay saw in him.
And, while the Exeter-born schemer only turned 20 in February, West Ham fans will recognise the sort of pull-no-punches, shape-up-or-ship-out approach Moyes is taking with the second-most expensive signing in Everton history.
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Jarrod Bowen of West Ham United celebrates equalizing goal during the Premier League match between Everton and West Ham United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 29, 2025 in Liverpool, England.
“[If I were Dibling] I would be thinking, ‘I better get my finger out and show the manager what I was really all about’,” Moyes said in February, via the Liverpool Echo.
“The one thing Tyler has got on his side is that he’s young and he’s a quite a quiet boy who might take more time to settle in. Might. But he needs to show when he gets the opportunities.
“What we want from him is being direct, taking people on, committing people. He needs to get a way of becoming that player who we bought that we thought would be creative. Are you going to get us some assists, are you going to score some goals?
“I think Tyler is more angry with himself. He is quite a quiet boy, but I think he is angry with himself because I think he is realising that, ‘if I don’t get my finger out, then I am going to get pushed aside here’.”
Dibling has played only one minute in Everton’s last nine Premier League matches. Should Moyes hand the winger a rare chance to make an impression at the manager’s old London Stadium stomping ground, it would surely be an opportunity Dibling cannot afford to waste.
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