David Moyes Frustrated with Everton's Thin Squad but Maintains High Expectations
David Moyes admits frustration at Everton’s thin squad after chaotic deadline day, but insists he still expects his team to stay clear of a relegation fight and push upwards.
The Everton manager watched a late move for Monaco striker Folarin Balogun fall apart on a frantic final day of the window, while Iliman Ndiaye was sold to Manchester City. When the dust settled, Moyes was left counting bodies: just 18 senior outfield players, and only one recognised striker.
“Disappointed we didn't do more business, disappointed things didn't go our way in the end,” he said ahead of Sunday’s visit of Manchester United. The tone was blunt rather than bitter. “But sometimes in football you have to live with disappointments and we will and we'll move on.”
The Balogun saga summed up the chaos. Monaco managing director Thiago Scuro revealed that the USA international pulled out of the move back to the Premier League over how he felt he had been treated by Everton.
An issue flagged during the medical prompted Everton to try to renegotiate the terms of the reported £40 million deal. Both clubs, though, remained willing to push ahead. Then Balogun walked away.
“There were lots of different bits to it. It wasn't anybody's fault,” Moyes said. “Ultimately it happens in football a lot. The player had a problem in his medical and that was simply it.”
So Moyes goes into the autumn with a stripped-back group, one injury away from a serious selection crisis in attack, and yet he refuses to lower the bar. Everton flirted with Europe for much of last season before a late slump dragged them down to 13th. That taste of the chase has not left him.
He has been clear since returning to the club: he does not see himself scrapping at the wrong end of the table.
“I'm getting too old now to be sitting around at the bottom end. I've said that to the players here when I came in. The job is that we challenge as close to the top end of the league as we can,” said the former Manchester United boss.
The standards are set. So is the memory of what this squad already delivered.
“I've got to say, they've done a brilliant job of it last year, and I don't think we were expected to do so well as what we've done,” he added. “I've got to hope that we can do that again. There might not be a great expectation on us at this moment in time, but behind the scenes I'm rallying them.”
The squad may be light. The expectations, clearly, are not.
