David Moyes Faces Frustration with Everton's Thin Squad

David Moyes cuts a frustrated figure as he surveys what is left of his Everton squad. The transfer window has closed, the phone has stopped ringing, and the numbers are stark: 18 senior outfield players. One recognised striker. A long season ahead.

The Everton manager did not hide his irritation as he prepared for Manchester United’s visit on Sunday, laying bare a deadline day that unravelled at speed and left him short of the reinforcements he wanted.

“Disappointed we didn't do more business, disappointed things didn't go our way in the end,” Moyes admitted. Then came the shrug of a man who has been in this game long enough to know that anger won’t change anything. “But sometimes in football you have to live with disappointments and we will and we'll move on.”

The most high-profile frustration centred on Folarin Balogun. Everton thought they were close. A late move for the Monaco striker, believed to be around £40 million, had been pushed towards the finish line on a frantic final day. Instead, it collapsed in the final stretch.

An issue flagged during the USA international’s medical prompted Everton to try to rework the terms of the deal. Monaco managing director Thiago Scuro later revealed that Balogun himself pulled out, unhappy with how he felt he had been treated during the process. Both clubs, Scuro said, were still willing to proceed. The player was not.

Moyes refused to point fingers.

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

The Balogun saga was only part of the story. While Everton failed to land their main attacking target, Iliman Ndiaye was sold to Manchester City, further stripping depth from a squad already walking a tightrope in terms of numbers.

The upshot is a group that looks alarmingly light for a manager who has never hidden his ambition. Moyes has spoken consistently about dragging Everton back into European contention. For much of last season, that did not feel far-fetched. The club flirted with a push for Europe before a late slump dropped them to 13th.

He has not forgotten that, nor has he forgotten the doubts that surrounded the team before that run.

“I'm getting too old now to be sitting around at the bottom end,” the former Manchester United boss said, leaning into the challenge as much as lamenting the situation. “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.”

He knows what last season represented: overachievement in the eyes of many, resilience in his.

“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 said. “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.”

That is the reality now. No late cavalry, no surprise arrivals. Just a thin squad, a demanding manager, and a fanbase that has seen enough false dawns to recognise the stakes.

The window has closed. The excuses have too. Now Everton have to find out whether this bare-bones group can live up to their manager’s insistence that he is done with life at the bottom end of the table.