David Moyes interview: Everton ambitions, transfer troubles and pre-season differences

It's not going to be easy to attract big players; it's going to be a tough season ahead, if we can't get better players in.

The club needs to be a lot more creative and analytical in its transfer business, rather than just “going for” players.

Jack Harrison incoming.

I suppose Moyes has to say something in these interviews but this is depressing.

There's players out there who don't even know who we are, let alone want to sign for us. We haven't won nothing for 30 years, we've got lads who go every away game not even older than that, and yet the usual suspects ridicule other teams who feature constantly in the so-called holy grail of football, ie, the Champions League, something that we've never seen at Goodison.

Sorry, I've got news for them; we are a distant memory from yesteryear who basically just make the numbers up in the Premier League — a place, by the way, we are still lucky to be considering the shite we've had to watch over the last few years.

Yes, not good, is it? And I doubt it's changing any time soon.

Also, it begs the question: What have Moyes and TFG been doing since January? There is no DoF in place, yes a new recruitment team and CEO have been hired but surely there have been conversations and targets identified between Moyes and TFG in regards to new players during the last 6 months.

If TFG have told Moyes to wait until the new people are in place, then are these the right people for this club? They clearly are finding it a struggle to bring in those players.

That's all you need to know.

No one has been stuck on their hands. Effort has been made since Premier League certainty was gained. It's not Dithering Davey, we wouldn't be doing any better with Kevin Thelwell or any other shite posted.

Bottom line is: no player is going to move to Everton, or frankly any other club, until they've worked out that's the best offer on the table.

It was pure madness creating a brand new DoF structure where almost all the new faces didn't start until June.

6 players to Sunderland, Burnley 10, Brighton 7, Leeds 7, Brentford 5.

Business is being done and the lack of European football doesn't appear to have been such an impediment elsewhere.

Granit Xhaka for £30M commitment on a 3-year deal, when he's 33 in September? I'd be furious if we wasted that amount of money on a player like that.

We need better players, not just more bodies for the sake of it.

The window is still open, and the players we want in the main are still available.

Josh #8, yeah, but look at who those clubs are signing. Run down the list and ask yourself how many are players you'd have wanted for us. Diarra for Sunderland? Yes. Couple others. But most of these signings were in single digits to fill out squads. We're not going that way.

Xhaka is better than most of our midfield players, even at 33.

There are no excuses – the club knew what they had to do when they were planning on Young, Doucoure, Calvert-Lewin, Mangala, Lindstrom and Harrison being let go. Let alone the right-back we have been needing for over 3 years.

I am sick of hearing "We really tried but we can't get the players."

And the excuses: "We have to wait till 1 July because of PSR" – Rubbish.

"It's only pre-season, it doesn't matter" – Rubbish.

"We have until 2 September" – Deary me, we could be 9 points down by then, much worse than a PSR deduction.

In the meantime, we are charging highly inflated sums for Club membership, tickets for the new stadium, and for the new kits.

So come on, "new" recruitment team – get your finger out and sell the club to players that will want to come here.

There are surely better players than we have that want to come here.

The club could have signed any of the players Burnley have signed but they wouldn't improve us at all.

Xhaka might be better than what we have now, but the idea that we should have done what Sunderland have done is not what I want to see.

For us to move forward, we need better quality. To get possession of the ball and carve teams open, we need better players.

I am sure we will miss out on some targets. But this has to be better than a diet of picking up bang average players or those over the hill.

Hopefully, the days of attracting such players with silly pay are over. That's why we nearly ended up in administration. Yes, I'm disappointed we haven't had more incomings… but we have to be patient,

I'm with Ian. I'll judge it on 2 September.

If that is the best we can do, then so be it. I'd still prefer that the manager was more upbeat in his media engagements and talked the club up.

Back to your earlier post, I don't really care how many players those clubs have signed or who they are. That looks like a numbers game.

We could do that, but I'm assuming that we are trying for the right players who can improve the quality of the squad, as well as add depth.

I don't think he does have to be negative and manage expectations, that's just him.

We have a manager who did very well last season, but we know and shouldn't be surprised by his demeanour.

Yeah, we can wait until the season is underway before truly judging, but the bottom line is he would have had numerous irons in numerous fires and had proved himself adept at playing the market.

When Moyes says 'we need 9 or 10 players.....' I have zero interest as his fingerprints were clearly all over that decision. Get on with it.

I am hoping that some of those mentioned will come but, with the opening games less than a month away, it would be imperative that some of those quality signings be on board to have some integration time with the squad. Loan signings and back-up players I would be willing to wait. We need a right-back, right-wing and a creative box-to-box midfielder at a minimum.

My biggest worry, which I already outlined in threads at end of season, is that bringing in 9 or 10 players is likely to disrupt rather than enhance the squad, hence retaining Keane, Patterson, Gana were important

Dare I say it, I wouldn't be adverse to bringing back the much maligned Harrison and the Lindstrom who I think could benefit from a second loan spell with us.

[Hiding behind the parapet.]

I truly believe that he would have done a fine job with some money. The one proper professional appointment we made in the last 4 years and we ballsed it up! Our loss is definitely Rangers' gain.

Instead, in the most crucial transfer window, we are left without a proper recruitment team in place. I just don't get it.

Fuck off, Everton, you absolute shower of amateur bastards. Pull your heads out of yer arses and act like a professional fucking football club for once. Shameful.

What's the betting on lightning striking twice at BMD in a couple of weeks?

For decades, way before any talented current young player was even born, the reputation of Everton Football Club worldwide was knowingly ruined by the quisling far too many of us chose, effectively from his point of view, to support.

It'll take years at best to get close to changing that worldwide correct perspective, unless we stumble upon a once-in-a-lifetime matrix, as Leicester did for one year...... but having stumbled upon it, just look at where they are now.

So here we are again........ Reasons To Be Cheerful - (Part 34, or thereabouts).

We also have an existing scouting network under Lee Sargeson, head of European scouting operations, and we obviously have scouts in South America (we've signed Charly from there and competed for at least two others, Rios and Franca). So it's not like there's nobody on the job even though two of the office chairs are still empty.

You can be sure that the club has the same priorities you do, and the same sense of urgency about filling them. They certainly weren't going to wait for the entire executive office to be on board. But building a new structure takes time, and we don't have any idea what TFG's budget constraints actually are.

Integration of new players is a concern and I have already predicted that we will get off to a rough start in the new season. But when you lose 10 players off an already-short squad, that's gonna happen.

Lindstrøm went back to Napoli and then was loaned out to Wolfsburg, I believe.

Stephen #24, as I just detailed, we do have a recruitment team in place, and both of the new executives on the way have stellar reputations and Moyes's respect (one worked with him at Everton). But I share your feelings about Thelwell's dismissal. I was crushed.

TFG have been led by Moyes, he didn't want a DOF so we went a different route. Seems like a mistake to have ditched Thelwell and the DOF role months ahead of the biggest transfer window (certainly in terms of squad requirements) in last 30 years.

And yes, clubs such as Forest (just had a great season), Bournemouth (one of the best young managers going) and definitely Brighton are almost certainly more attractive than us. They are stable, well-managed and good at developing players. Everything we haven't been.

We are not an attractive club to play for. The sooner people realise this and accept it, the better. It will be easier to move forward then.

On a broader level, the sooner people realise the extent of the malaise over the last 30 years and that we are consequently no longer a big club, again, the better.

We haven't acted or thought like a big club for a long, long time. Big clubs don't go potless for 30 years and 10 years without winning a home derby match.

The mid-80s were a long time ago, lads. That club doesn't even exist anymore.

Spot on.

Maybe we want to try and buy better than O'Brien, Ndiaye and Alcaraz?

Lindstrøm has gone to Wolfsburg, so he's (thankfully) not coming back.

We desperately need both numbers and quality. Past experience and modern-day reality suggest that it may not happen.

I wonder who we might have now if Thelwell was running recruitment. Probably a lot of the links would be similar as there are only so many players but the continuity may have got one or two more targets over the line.

Listening to his interview, he again reiterated we have approached some really good players, obviously players he had recommended to the board, and as he said, so far, all have said No.

So is it any wonder he is pissed off with our team's attempts to sign the players he wanted? Those complaining about his demeanour – surely you prefer a manger to come out and say what most supporters are saying rather than be upbeat about the situation.

We need far better quality than what we have at present to push us towards a team competing for a European spot. TFG have made all these managerial changes so far but it doesn't look like anything has improved.

Let's hope the rumours about Grealish are true and we are trying to get him in; that's the sort of quality we are lacking.

I think Thelwell was in a better position, if he had remained here, to do a better job now than the others coming in, no matter how they turn out in the future. It's now that new players are needed and we will get them but will they be the ones as good as Thelwell would have signed or had in mind?

By the way, Mike, who was the one who worked previously with Moyes? — I'll keep my eye on him!

So it's quite possible some of these deals were being investigated and handled by Thelwell. And remember, Moyes was here at the time so Thelwell wouldn't have left in a vacuum.

Intially, Kinnear was going to have his compatriots Hammond and Penrice join from Leeds. Moyes had wanted his West Ham transfer team, Newman and Storey. David Moyes Jr is part of West Ham's scouting team, brought in by Moyes.

It seems that Moyes did get his input with the arrival shortly of James Smith, ex-Everton. Penrice is also ex-Everton.

I always preferred the DoF or Technical Director model where the manager has a say but overall recruitment strategy is led by someone with longer term job security.

What happens if we start the season badly and Moyes gets fired in October with us in the relegation spots? Hopefully that won't be the case but I'm not convinced by the process. Proof will be in the pudding, I suppose.

I thought his American comments were out of place regarding his contractual obligations. His "more on home grounds" comments to The Athletic are more appropriate. But he is still on the blame game trail.

By not replacing at least Doucoure or Lindstrøm at this stage with competence points to problems within the transfer team which may be of Moyes's making.

Certainly his American comments don't help (particularly if they are disingenuous) and The Athletic comments could point to having been talked to, which I expected.

Moyes's stated adherence to not allowing youth, not tried in the Premier League, straight into the first team, is a real barrier on Everton's budget.

Moyes may have not had too much time for Thewell after it was apparent he was leaving. This transfer window does not seem to have much Thewell input.

I think that Moyes is moving into the "Under Caution" stage of his Everton career… though I still expect him to see out his contract.

It has been said that while we, the fans, see Everton as a big club, a lot of players out there have never heard of us or that several "better" players have turned us down, but is this true?

Isn't it why players have agents or is it why every player we sign seems to mention our "great history"? On the other side, how does whoever proposes interest in such players' ideas compare to TFG's company that provides statistical information on players?

Then there is the matter of the losses that have been amassing over the years. Maybe TFG can reorganize debt through shareholding arrangements and selling other sectors of the club but the losses and outgoings need to be stemmed.

Usually in business, the first thing looked at is outgoings, money spent, which in this business would mostly be wages and transfer fees, no matter how you spread it out in the accounts.

While Everton have rarely marketed themselves very efficiently, there is a dilemma that the other way to improve income and turnover is to improve team performance. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, or just need better accountants?

Moyes is still on the little Eempire trail which will not last under the new data and measurement owners.

It means Moyes is right in the thick of the lack of the Transfers he is complaining about.

We are fast approaching the bottom of the barrel but be assured, once the season starts, if we lose 12 points in the first six games, it's gonna be an arse twitching season.

In my opinion, the club's gone backwards… Same old.

How would Kinnear and his committee know better than Moyes who we are best to recruit this summer? It's farcical.
As Moyes ally Leoan Osman said in an interview a few weeks ago, words to the effect that the club should back him and let him get on with his job.

As to what happens once he's restocked the club and we're back among the European places when he leaves, I reckon we cross that bridge when we get to it.

They were terrible, the side lacked any cutting edge or pace. In their blue shirts they looked familiar.

Big game vs a Czech team in the Champions League. Thelwell could be looking over his shoulder if they crash out.