Everton experienced a nightmare of a summer window – the collapse of the £40m deal for Monaco striker Folarin Balogun on deadline day gave David Moyes a real headache.
David Moyes admits he has never spoken to Dan Friedkin – the CEO of Everton’s owners, the Friedkin Group – after a completely chaotic end to the transfer window.
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Everton are left with a thin squad after failing to sign a striker on deadline day. The Toffees sold Beto to Fiorentina, and when Folarin Balogun turned down his replacement, late bids for Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee and Aston Villa’s Tammy Abraham also went down the drain. That leaves Thierno Barry as Everton’s only senior striker.
Admittedly, Everton got something to cheer about when Jack Grealish returned on loan from Manchester City, but the sale of Iliman Ndiaye to City for £65 million weakened the squad further.
The utterly ridiculous end to the window – in which Balogun changed his mind after arriving at Everton’s training ground – has put the club under intense scrutiny. Moyes’ admission that he has no contact with Friedkin only fuels the criticism.
In a press conference, quoted by the Liverpool Echo, Moyes was diplomatic in summing up the chaos. He said the collapse of the £40 million Balogun deal was “nobody’s fault”.
“The transfer window was generally difficult,” he added.
“I know how it ended, but it was tough all the way for us. The last few days were especially difficult because we pushed hard. We made bids for several players on Bank Holiday Monday, and it’s almost unbelievable how it ended.
“A lot of things just didn’t work out. But we probably shouldn’t have waited that long – we should have tried to get the job done much earlier.
When asked if the transfer window had made his job more difficult, he replied:
“The Everton job is always demanding. This is a club that is used to adversity. I understand how tough it must have been for Dychey [former manager Sean Dyche] and many of the managers before him, in different periods.
“It’s going to be tough. We don’t have a big squad – that’s not the number we would ideally want, but sometimes you have to do something special in football, and we’ll try to do that. I’ve never wanted a huge squad – I prefer it to be tighter – but maybe not as tight as this.
Moyes has vast experience and is ready to fight on with reduced squads.
“My goal is just to be as good as we’ve tried to be in the last few seasons,” he says.
“Some things will make it more difficult. There will be days when we don’t get it right. But one thing I will promise you: I will do my utmost not to make excuses for what has happened. And the players are fully aware of that.
“There are no excuses from the players – neither for what we have nor what we lack. Two or three players are mentioned often – they really have to come forward. They all have to show that they can handle this club.
“And for me personally, this is a fantastic job. I love Everton and always have. It has actually given me new energy in the last year to be back – because I was actually going to give up, or maybe take a national team job or something else.
– I actually think we’ve had a good year and a half together, I really mean that. If you look over a year and a half, you have to say that there have been far more positive than negative things. So now there’s a small bump in the road. I just have to get over the bump quickly and start seeing how I can make things go smoothly again.
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