Everton FC v QPR Preview: David Moyes describes why he is still optimistic for the future despite a long, fraught summer
ONLY three months have passed since that Sunday in May when Everton kissed goodbye to last season with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Goodison, but it probably feels like far longer for David Moyes.
The Everton manager has not even led his side into competitive action in the new campaign yet, but he could already be forgiven for feeling as over-stretched as a London Met police chief.
He may not have said much publicly, but it has been a long, busy and frustrating summer for the Toffees boss – starting from the day shortly after that Chelsea game when he met with chairman Bill Kenwright to hear the grim truth of the club’s financial landscape.
Moyes already knew he would be severely limited in any transfer spending, but that meeting with his board left him uncertain even meagre additions to his squad would be possible.
It is far from ideal, but on the eve of Everton’s belated kick off against QPR today, the stoic Glaswegian is clinging to the positives and refusing to accept that all is gloomy.
“I had a couple of plans in my head that I thought we could make work,” says Moyes of his hopes before that sit-down with the board in May.
“I met a lot of players who I intended to bring to Everton. I met three or four good players I intended to bring to Everton so don’t think I wasn’t on that.
“But a couple of the plans I thought might come to fruition didn’t work so we move onto the next one. I knew the situation we where in when I met Bill in May.
“Why has bank’s situation changed?
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“I don’t know the ins and outs but I think it’s down to the overdraft facility being at the limit. It’s like most things in life now, the banks have pulled the plug on a lot of people but I’ve got to say we get really well supported by our bank.
“I know the people at the top quite well and they are good people. I am sure they will do everything they can to help us.”
That situation, Moyes admits, means that most of any money he recoups by selling players must now go to the bank which controls Everton’s debt.
It is that tightening of overdraft facilities in an increasingly fraught economic time which has changed the way the Blues must operate.
And Moyes explains the club have already directed over £10m back to the bank via player sales and other deals last season.
“Most of the cash I get will go to the bank,” he says.
“We got the bank back Steven Pienaar money, Bellefield money, a good loan fee for Yakubu. Within six months we have got the bank back quite a bit of money.”
The cause for optimism, he insists, is that he has not been forced to sell his best players yet, a situation he believes is unlikely to materialise unless bids from poaching clubs become significantly compelling.
“That’s why I have said I won’t let my main players go,” he says.
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“I know how important they are and nobody has offered me anything which makes me think I am having to twitch because it is getting close.
“Maybe that’s people thinking Everton haven’t got any money so we’ll make a small offer for their players. But at the moment, I haven’t been in a situation where I have felt as if I have to sell anybody.”
There is certainly a shift in how Moyes outlines expectations for the league this season, perhaps motivated as much by deliberate under-playing of his hand as by grim realism. But, he says, even finishing in the top 10 will be a struggle without new signings.
“I think that will be tough, not necessarily because of what we haven’t done but because what other teams have done,” he admits.
“Others have improved their squads, not just the elite branch but teams that finished in the group below us last season – Sunderland, Fulham, West Brom.”
Regardless of the difficulty of the task ahead, supporters can be certain Moyes is as committed as ever. “My loyalties are to Everton,” he says.
“I’ve been here now nine years and we are going to try and do as well as we have done over those nine years. We have competed.
“We sold McFadden and Andy Johnson to get Fellaini three years ago. We sold Joleon Lescott, not that we were mad keen to do so, and that got us Heitinga, Bily and Distin. We have not had any new cash for a long while. The only difference now is the bank wants some cash back and I am hoping to make a couple of sales that will give them that.”
MOYES ON...
THE DEBT:
Our debt is small-fry. When I took over there was very little on the pitch that Everton could sell. Now look at the value that Everton have got on the pitch. If we wanted to sell players of course there would be takers for them.
THE DRESSING ROOM:
I’ve really been encouraged by the players. We won’t use this as an excuse for any result or performance. No chance. We’ll take them on the chin good or bad – the players have the bit between their teeth.
HIS OWN MORALE:
There are parts of it that become tiring but just because you don’t have any cash it doesn’t mean you give in, or stop giving 100% or stop preparing your players properly. I am doing what I am employed to do – put out a team doing well.
