What to make of Farhad Moshiri’s comments

It was a truly frustrating Deadline Day for Everton fans as they saw two pressing areas of need left unfilled, and then to confuse matters even more, there appeared to be to be some double-speak going on from club ownership and management.

Manager Ronald Koeman had made it more than clear in the last few weeks that he still wanted at least two more players - a striker and a left-sided defender.

Everton then failed to address those gaps throughout the remainder of the transfer window, which culminated yesterday with signing the attack-minded youngster Nikola Vlasic and youth midfielder Dennis Adeniran. To make matters worse the Toffees then loaned out Callum Connolly, who had stepped in for Leighton Baines during the preseason, to leave that position even barer than expected.

The glaring need for a big target man had been made quite clear with Everton’s inability to hold up possession in the opponents’ box, especially when playing faster and more skilled teams. Despite a number of links for strikers, nothing came to pass in the end and listening to the owner, it sounded like that was fine by him.

Here’s what Moshiri said to Jim White -

“The two clubs agreed a deal of £35m, I think personal terms were agreed and after the medical we heard from Paul Martin, his agent, that he changed his mind. He wants to reconsider his position during the January window.

“He is currently injured so I think technically he will be with us because he is under contract for another year. It is a big surprise but that is football.

“I think it’s been a very busy transfer window. We’ve brought in a lot of new players. Especially in the attacking areas, the number ten position now as we have Klaasen, Sigurdsson, and Rooney. That is a position we have heavily strengthened.

“We’ve brought in the young striker Sandro Ramirez. We’d really like to give them a chance to gel, we have a lot of new players.

“It is not easy to break into that now but he is a good player, he is a world class player but he needs to play.”

As for the squad makeup, he said Koeman had a big part to play in the choices of players -

"These are all his signings. His mark is firmly on the squad now. About 80% of the squad is his now.”

Regarding ambitions for the season -

"We hope to finish in the top six at least"

Koeman’s next press conference promises to be very interesting especially when he’s asked about the signings he was expecting.