David Moyes Faces Everton Squad Shortage After Transfer Window

David Moyes cut a frustrated figure as he surveyed what is left of his Everton squad – a group he admits is worryingly light just days after the transfer window slammed shut.

A frantic deadline day ended in chaos for the Toffees. A late push to land Monaco striker Folarin Balogun collapsed, while Iliman Ndiaye was sold to Manchester City, leaving Moyes short on numbers and options.

When the dust settled, Everton were left with just 18 senior outfield players. Only one of them is a recognised striker.

“Disappointed we didn't do more business, disappointed things didn't go our way in the end,” Moyes said at his pre-match press conference ahead of Manchester United’s visit on Sunday. “But sometimes in football you have to live with disappointments and we will and we'll move on.”

The Balogun saga summed up the turmoil. Monaco managing director Thiago Scuro revealed the forward pulled out of a return to the Premier League because of how he felt Everton had treated him.

An issue flagged during the USA international’s medical prompted Everton to try to renegotiate the terms of a deal believed to be worth around £40 million ($54 million). Both clubs, though, were still ready to push ahead. It was Balogun who ultimately walked away.

“There were lots of different bits to it. It wasn't anybody's fault,” Moyes insisted. “Ultimately it happens in football a lot. The player had a problem in his medical and that was simply it.”

The missed signing leaves Everton exposed, yet Moyes refuses to frame the season as a survival mission. Last year, his side flirted with European qualification before a late slump dragged them down to 13th. That taste of the upper half 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 manager.

“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.

“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.”

Short on bodies, long on defiance, Moyes now has to turn that rallying cry into results. With Manchester United arriving on Sunday, the thinness of his squad – and the steel of his ambitions – is about to be tested.