Moyes Eyes Free-Agent Market After Everton's Transfer Window Challenges

David Moyes has admitted Everton are scouring the free-agent market after a bruising end to the transfer window left his squad short in key areas.

The club lost Iliman Ndiaye, Beto, Tim Iroegbunam, Adam Aznou and Nathan Patterson late in the window, stripping depth from a group already walking a tightrope with injuries and form. Both full-back positions and centre-forward are now glaring problem zones, with Moyes effectively down to one senior option in each role.

The clock on traditional transfers has stopped. The work has not.

Free agents can still be signed outside the window, and Everton are now leaning heavily on that route. Any new arrivals, though, must be registered before a secondary cut-off point understood to be roughly a week after the deadline – a narrow gap for a club suddenly forced into improvisation.

Speaking at his press conference before Sunday’s meeting with Manchester United, Moyes did not try to dress it up.

“We are looking at the free agents market,” he said. “I am trying to get a team that is going to be at the top end and challenge. I want the players to believe that we are moving forward – for me, that is really important.”

The words carried a mix of defiance and frustration. Everton had pushed for more business. The manager expected more bodies through the door. The market, and some late misfortune, left him short.

The most painful example came on deadline day.

Folarin Balogun’s proposed move collapsed at the last moment, denying Moyes the centre-forward he had been chasing. In the aftermath, there was no attempt from the manager to pin the blame on executives, agents or the player.

“Disappointed we didn’t do more business and disappointed things didn’t go our way in the end,” he admitted. “Sometimes in football you have to live with disappointment and we will move on.

“It wasn’t anybody’s fault [the failed Balogun deal]. It happens in football a lot. The player had a problem in his medical and that was simply it. There’s no other story behind it.”

So Everton pivot. The strategy now is opportunistic rather than grand.

Moyes needs a full-back who can play immediately, another who can cover both flanks if required, and a striker who can handle the physical load of the Premier League without a long bedding-in period. Those are big asks from a pool of players without clubs, many of whom lack recent competitive minutes.

But the manager has little choice.

With United looming and the season stretching out ahead, Everton’s margin for error is already thin. The next week, and the calibre of free agents they can convince to buy into his vision, will say a lot about how ambitious this campaign can really be.