Re: The Rebuild
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2025 7:31 am
Not sure if this is the article - copied from the Telegraph on Apple news
Inside Everton’s torrid summer: 12 player exits, seven failed moves and six signings still needed
Recent years spent fighting relegation battles are having an impact and influencing players’ decisions to join Merseyside club
David Moyes was on a break from management the previous time he visited Atlanta. It was February 2019 and he had been invited to Super Bowl LIII. The game itself was not the most memorable, with Tom Brady’s New England Patriots defeating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in the lowest scoring Super Bowl in history, but the after-party certainly was. Snoop Dogg was among the performers and, while Moyes is no fan of gangsta rap, it was almost impossible not to get swept up by the spectacular carnival atmosphere and celebrations.
Unfortunately for Moyes, who has been back in Atlanta with Everton as part of the Premier League Summer Series which wound to a close on Sunday night, he has had less cause for cheer this time around.
The excitement around Everton’s move into their new 53,000 capacity Hill Dickinson Stadium has been tempered by a summer of struggle and setbacks in the transfer window, and troubling results and performances on the pitch.
It has led Moyes to declare that Everton are “not ready” for the start of the new Premier League season, with only a fortnight before they kick-off away to newly promoted Leeds United, and left the club playing a frantic game of catch-up with 27 days until the close of the window.
Transfer plans have stalled
In truth, it was possible to detect a slight lightening in Moyes’ mood over the weekend. He hopes to have a couple of new faces in before Everton play Roma in their new ground on the banks of the Mersey on Saturday. Everton agreed a deal worth around £25m with Chelsea for midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on Monday and the chase for Southampton midfielder Tyler Dibling continues. Everton have submitted a third bid worth around £40m including add ons after Southampton rejected offers worth £27m and £35m. Southampton are holding out for more and Everton are carefully weighing up their next move.
He was also encouraged to see his side twice come from behind to draw 2-2 with Manchester United at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Sunday evening in a greatly improved display from the defeats by Bournemouth and West Ham, which were both littered with individual mistakes. Equally, the news that England defender Jarrad Branthwaite was, “with a little bit of luck”, set to return to training on Wednesday following injury was another boost at a time when Moyes has been down to the bare bones and in desperate need of reinforcements.
But the manager was not going to sugarcoat the situation and has encountered enough disappointment in the window already to remain a little uneasy. “We’ve picked up but not enough and not as far as we need,” he said. “I would have hoped we’d be much further down the line than we’ve been. I would love to be able to have a couple of players in [before Saturday] so I could tell the crowd: ‘This is the start.’
“I think there will be deals [this] week – I think we’re getting much closer – but I’ve got to say I felt that four or five weeks ago as well. We’re getting near the tickly bits and we’ve got to get some things done.”
Dozen exits left a threadbare squad, then a series of transfer failures
Everton have spent around £52m on four signings this summer. Argentinian midfielder Carlos Alcaraz, who performed well on loan last season from Flamengo, has joined permanently and the promising young France Under-21 striker Thierno Barry arrived from Villarreal. Teenage left back Adam Aznou was signed from Bayern Munich and goalkeeper Mark Travers brought in from Bournemouth as back–up to No. 1 Jordan Pickford. The problem is it is not nearly enough. A dozen players exited at the end of last season, including striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin and midfielder Abdoulaye Doucouré, who was asked to take a cut to his £5m a year deal but declined. Moyes, in turn, has been left with a squad critically low on numbers and in urgent need of an injection of quality, particularly in midfield and out wide. Injuries have only compounded his problems and left the manager working with around 15 senior players for the duration of Everton’s stay in the US.
Moyes wants up to six more signings, including a No 6 and a No 8 midfielder and two wide players but, even for a man who has seen most things during a 27-year career in management, this summer has tested his patience like few others. Indeed, the number of players Everton have missed out on is heading towards double figures. It is not just Newcastle manager Eddie Howe who is encountering repeat frustration.
Everton had a medical lined up for Kenny Tete only for the Netherlands defender to decide to stay with Fulham. The exciting young Portugal winger Francisco Conceicao opted to join Juventus permanently after a loan from Porto rather than move to Merseyside and another wide target, Lyon’s Malick Fofana, has his sights set on a switch to a Champions League club.
There have been other disappointments, too. The Colombia midfielder Richard Rios chose Benfica and the Belgium winger Johan Bakayoko swapped PSV Eindhoven for RB Leipzig in Germany. Real Sociedad were asking for too much for the Japan winger Takefusa Kubo and then there is Joao Palhinha, whom Moyes would have loved to bring in only for the Portugal midfielder to join Tottenham on loan from Bayern. Tomas Soucek was a favourite of Moyes at West Ham and he wants to add a midfielder of similar profile to the Czech.
Management upheaval cannot hide recent relegation struggles
Certainly for Everton fans desperate for a new era of success in a new stadium under a new management structure and new owners after an emotional farewell to Goodison Park in May, it has been a rather sobering couple of months.
Moyes worked wonders last season after returning to the club he had led for 11 years before leaving to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2013.
Everton were 16th in the Premier League, a point above the relegation zone with only three wins from 19 games and unable to buy a goal, when Moyes replaced Sean Dyche as manager on January 11, just weeks after the Friedkin Group bought the club.
They would lose just four of their next 19 matches, amassing 31 points in the process to finish in a comfortable 13th, above Spurs, Manchester United and another of his old clubs, West Ham. There is, naturally, a desire to build on that momentum, just as Everton’s new US owners have wasted no time implementing a raft of changes to the management structure. Angus Kinnear was snared from Leeds to become chief executive and Nick Hammond appointed head of recruitment. Nick Cox has joined as technical director from Manchester United and James Smith will take over as director of scouting and recruitment in September after being poached from Manchester City.
Yet Moyes fears that, for all the club’s lofty ambitions, recent years spent fighting relegation battles are having an impact and influencing players’ decisions. He has also noted that there are nine Premier League rivals who are able to offer European football to prospective targets this summer. That is making it doubly hard for Everton. Similarly, he is mindful that bedding in a clutch of new players once the season is underway will be no small task and presents its own challenges. As the Everton defender Michael Keane, 32, acknowledged in recent days, there is a huge onus on the senior players to step up during this difficult period.
Grealish the signing Everton’s owners can get behind
There may be some light at the end of the tunnel before this week is out, though. The Merseyside club have also made a third bid for Dibling but Southampton are still after more and it remains to be seen if an agreement can be struck for the 19-year-old England Under-21 midfielder, who was one of the few success stories at St Mary’s last season. The Juventus midfielder Douglas Luiz, formerly of Aston Villa and Manchester City, has Premier League experience and is surplus to requirements in Turin. Leicester’s James Justin and Ben Doak, the teenage Liverpool winger, are other potential options. And then there is Jack Grealish.
While it is clear Moyes has other players he wants in first, it is also easy to see why a loan deal for the Manchester City and England attacking midfielder could hold such appeal to Everton’s American ownership. He is the kind of name and maverick talent fans could really get behind and, with the World Cup finals at the end of the season, Grealish has added motivation to get back playing regularly after being omitted from City’s Club World Cup squad in June. Everton also have the benefit of being North West based although with Grealish earning around £300,000 a week at City, any deal would be costly and there is likely to be stiff competition for the 29-year-old. Napoli and West Ham are among the other clubs who have been linked with the player.
Moyes has a long-standing reputation for developing young domestic and overseas talent. But he wants Everton to be looking towards the top half of the table, not getting sucked towards another relegation battle and, as such, he has been keen to find the right blend between potential and Premier League experience. He needs players, yes, but he will not sign them for the sake of it. The value of experience has certainly been clear to see on Everton’s tour of the US, with the team instantly looking more assured at the back once centre-back James Tarkowski returned from a three month injury lay-off.
Everton’s data analytics operations are being led by Chris Howarth, who sold his company Insight Sport to the Friedkin Group. Moyes is heavily involved in the recruitment process and, for a manager who has always had an eye and a nose for a player, there is a fine balance between trusting the data and his own instincts. Everton, though, need a breakthrough. The clock is ticking and Moyes knows it.