Sean Dyche believes it is unlikely Everton will bring a free agent to the club and has called for patience as he tries to address the imbalances in his squad.
Everton endured a dreadful end to the transfer window with numerous attempts to strengthen Dyche’s relegation-threatened squad resulting in failure. That came despite promises from majority shareholder, Farhad Moshiri, that the Blues would secure a much-needed striker in January.
Instead it could be said that Everton ended the window with a weaker squad than when it opened with Anthony Gordon being allowed to join Newcastle United in a deal that could rise to £45m.
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Everton have been linked with former Real Madrid playmaker Isco, who is out of contract after leaving Sevilla, while other forward options have also been mentioned with a move to Goodison Park.
But when asked if he would have already brought in a free agent by now, Dyche replied: “I’d have thought so.”
A lack of goals is a major reason for Everton's position in the bottom three. Dyche’s side have found the net just 16 times in 22 league matches. But speaking ahead of his side’s game with Leeds United on Thursday, the Everton boss reiterated that the lack of new signings was not for the want of trying and urged patience as he tries to address the imbalances in the squad.
He said: “I am certainly not deserving of an explanation before my time here because that was a different regime and different people involved.
“Certainly in my time since I have been here and I don’t mind reiterating, I sat here for some 48 odd hours. More or less here all day and all night with all the relevant people doing all we can.
“The one thing I would say is to share a view of it and you may well have noticed how many strikers are out there. What market are you looking in? How many are out there? How many are Premier League ready?
“In the current moment we are not looking at developing players, we have that in [Ellis] Simms, learning his trade.
“You are looking for people to affect it straight away. It is not an easy market anyway, for anyone, so you have to be honest about the market place and then your part in it.
“All I know is that the hours people spent, the phone calls, I was myself searching, looking through angles and looking at things that could affect the group.
“I can only speak on my time here and people worked very hard to get deals done but sometimes it is just simple alignment and not all about money.
“Money covers a lot of things and solves a lot of problems in life in general, not just football, but that is not always the case. But certain players at certain clubs in certain situations, everything has to align. It is not an easy situation.”
Dyche then continued saying: “I came in here with open eyes. I know the squad, I know the situation. It's going to be a big challenge, everyone knows that.
“The Arsenal game's a reminder of the quality that is here. Of course the striking department has got less options than you would like in the Premier League, and especially for a club of this size and the expectation of its fans.
“The squad needs readjusting because there's lots of players in certain positions. I'm trying to align a situation that is better going forwards. It does take time, we all know that. Within that time, the main focus at the moment is to fast-track that side into getting the points, winning games.
“Further down the road, of course I'm already talking about what can we do next, exploring many options, being in touch with the right people, getting our scouts working diligently across the board and covering as much of the situation as we can to try not to have this arise again."
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