Moyes: Everton Have No January Transfer Plans
Everton manager David Moyes says the club has no plans for the January transfer window. He said it while the club is up for sale by The Friedkin Group and while he works with a squad of only 18 players, 17 of them outfield.
A summer that left gaps
The last window was frustrating for Everton, and deadline day in particular. Iliman Ndiaye, Tim Iroegbunam, Beto and Nathan Patterson all left the club.
Some business did get done. Everton re-signed Jack Grealish on loan from Man City and brought in Ainsley Maitland-Niles from Lyon. They did not sign a new striker. Folarin Balogun turned down a move to the Hill Dickinson Stadium at the last minute.
Moyes still talks about the loss of those players and the failure to replace them.
Seventh place, and praise for the group
The table looks better than the summer suggested. Everton are seventh and would move level with the top four by beating Coventry City on Friday night. They are also through to the League Cup quarter-finals.
Asked about January, Moyes was direct about it. “At the moment, there’s no plans,” he said, adding that the current group are doing excellent. He wants them to get credit for how they are handling the circumstances.
He believes the team would have done better still had the players stayed. Without the win at Newcastle, he said, Everton might be 15th or 16th, though even that would leave them only three or four points off the top teams. He called the standings very hard to judge at this stage.
Rotation, and no guaranteed shirts
Moyes was not surprised by the start. He said he wants Everton to be up there and challenging. He also pointed out that last season's team spent long spells around the top end of the league.
The two wins over Newcastle United gave him something concrete. He rotated his side for those games, and he now says 14 or 15 players can come into the team and be used. That matters when the group is this small.
He also sent a message to the players. A shirt, he said, is hard to give away, but nobody can come in and fail to be productive. He wants the team to be unpredictable at times, and he does not want anyone to feel they have little competition for a place.
Moyes admitted the squad may lack the quality of some other teams. He added that “there’s a lot to be positive about because of how they’ve been doing generally.”
Source: Liverpool Echo