The Blues boss said it was unclear what resources would be available to him for the January transfer window as Everton face uncertainty in several key areas
Everton’s preparation for the January transfer window is underway but uncertainty remains over what resources will be available.
The club is carrying out its “diligence” of potential targets ahead of a month that could provide an opportunity for Sean Dyche and director of football Kevin Thelwell to strengthen the playing squad.
Dyche has not been informed of the state of play for the window, however, and said it was, currently, a case of “watch this space” for him.
The window will come against the backdrop of several issues causing uncertainty for Everton, including the club’s appeal against a 10 point deduction and the bid by 777 Partners to complete a takeover from majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri.
Next month will be the third window of Dyche’s Everton tenure, though his appointment came with just days left of the January 2023 one. That month a club in crisis signed no-one and sold starlet Anthony Gordon in a window that highlighted the financial constraints on spending. That continued in the summer, when the only upfront fee was the loan payment to Villarreal for Arnaut Danjuma. Buy now, pay later deals were constructed for Beto and Youssef Chermiti while the only other two arrivals were Ashley Young on a free and Jack Harrison on a loan. Everton’s long-term trend in the transfer market is one of tight spending set against the sales of key players – Alex Iwobi, Gordon and Richarlison among those to have been sold in the last 18 months.
Speaking ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest, Dyche said it had been easier to accept the limitations on transfer business because he knew he was arriving at a club in a challenging period when he joined the Blues nearly 12 months ago. Referring to the business conducted in the summer, he said: “Look, it’s difficult… when you are trying to manage a financial situation – nothing to do with the financial situation as with regards the 10 points – but regards player trading and stuff, you come into a situation where people are demanding you sign so and so and so and so, and you can’t show your hand immediately.
“[Reporters] are asking me in pre-season and I am [saying] ‘well, we are doing this or that’. You are hardly going to say what we have or we haven’t got because the market changes. So it is difficult. Then you know there is going to be natural wastage because there had to be. Then people are saying ‘why aren’t you re-signing him?’ You are trying to make it pretty clear.
“I did say at one point… can anyone join the dots here? It is not rocket science. It is beginning to look quite clear that we do not have lots of money. There were natural contracts coming out we had to make decisions on while building the format of a club that can bring players through and forwards – Patto [Nathan Patterson], Jarrad [Branthwaite], Jimmy [Garner] being more obvious. I know they were bought but we were developing them; trying to balance the squad which was imbalanced with so many centre-halves, so many centre midfielders and all that stuff; trying to tally it up with a wage bill that needed reducing and the financial side of the club that needed reducing – as in fees – trying to tally it with fees we are not going to pay now for obvious reasons.
“Doing all that in a window is very difficult. But I like to think that if you are given something to manage, so long as I know what it is I will manage it. It is when it goes [one extreme to the other] it gets really tricky. At least I knew this was going to be the next period of Everton Football Club.”
Dyche said it was currently unclear what resources would be available, if any, to strengthen next month. The window has additional intrigue after the deduction for a breach of Premier League spending rules plunged the club into the bottom three after good form had pushed it well clear of the relegation zone. The status of the attempt by US firm 777 Partners to takeover Everton is also a factor. The proposal is subject to the approval of regulatory bodies, in this case the Premier League, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Football Association.
