David Moyes calls on Everton owners to show ambition in summer transfer market

The Blues boss thinks work needs to be done on the squad and is hopeful the Friedkin Group can provide ‘the missing piece’

David Moyes has called on owners the Friedkin Group (TFG) to show ambition in the summer by backing Everton in the transfer market.

The Scot believes this season has provided a foundation for the club to build on, despite a disappointing end that will see the Blues just miss out on qualifying for Europe. Moyes and several of his players had set that as a target for the first campaign at the new Hill Dickinson Stadium.

This has, however, been the first year in five in which there has been no threat of relegation, while TFG have restructured the club’s debts to provide a more stable financial footing for the football team to move forward.

Moyes believes further investment in the squad is required to push the team on.

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Last summer, the first of TFG’s ownership and of Moyes’ second stint at the club, saw an outlay of more than £100m as nine players joined in a major overhaul of the playing squad.

Even with that business, Everton have a lower net spend over the past five years than all but two Premier League clubs, reflecting the financial constraints that restricted their transfer business over that period

The Blues boss said on Friday, ahead of the final game of the season at Tottenham Hotspur, that another “big summer” was required.

The 63-year-old insisted hat demand could be satisfied by a marquee signing, but the bottom line was that intent needed to be shown.

Moyes said: “It might mean that we just make one really top signing who makes a big difference to the team. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re buying six players.”

He added: “I believe that’s what we need to do (show ambition)… And I also want the ownership to show that as well. I want them to come out and show, ‘We’re here, we’re going again, we’re supporting you’.

“And by the way, you can’t always just keep spending bundles of cash, you have to get some rewards for it somewhere along the line. But I hope we can add to what we’ve got. I hope we can excite the supporters a little bit with what we’re trying to do.

“I’m hoping that I can do that… they’ve had too many dark days over recent seasons. I think this showed a little of brightness in the season. A ray of sunshine really. So we’ve got to try and keep that going and build on it.

“I’m fully aware that we have to keep progressing and not think that we’ve done enough – that we’re not in relegation trouble and that sounds okay,

“I’m more wanting us to be, which I have been all year, probably in nearly every press conference, saying, ‘Come on, let’s make Europe, let’s make Europe’, because what we’re saying is much better sounding than us just saying, ‘Let’s see if we can avoid relegation’.

“For most of the year, we’ve been able to talk that way, probably for the best part of nine months or so. Maybe the last month we’ve not quite been able to do it as well. But let’s hope we can do it next year.”

Moyes’ challenge followed the publication of comments by club CEO Angus Kinnear in the programme for the Sunderland game, in which he pointed to this summer representing the next stage of a two-year rebuild.

Asked whether he believed TFG would back the club to a sufficient level, Moyes said: “Yes, I’m confident they’ll help us to get a next piece of the jigsaw. I don’t think we’re a club that will go and spend – some of the other clubs have spent two and three hundred million and we’ve not got that, we don’t have that and that’s where the expectations need to come down.

“We’ll need to dodge and weave a little bit to try and get ourselves in. Hopefully we will make the right choices, you don’t always make the right choices in this business but we’ll do our best to try and get it right.”