David Moyes spoke to the media ahead of Everton’s opening Premier League Summer Series game against Bournemouth
David Moyes says he can “sense” the need for more additions to the squad from his own Everton players as he looks to make a string of move transfer signings this window.
When previewing the Blues’ opening fixture against Bournemouth in the Premier League Summer Series, the 62-year-old – who later that evening remarked on stage that the club needed to bring in nine or 10 new faces this window – said: “It’s a big opportunity. I don’t think we’ve started well, because we’re waiting on players and we’ve got injuries and we’re waiting on new players coming in.
“I can sense it from the players as well. Maybe they need the competition as well?
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“But if the players can provide me with the same results and the same performances they did from January onwards, I’d take that all day long. They’ve done a great job and they’ve got my trust because of that, but they need to earn it again as we start again and need them all fit, ready and healthy, competitive and showing their character.”
Everton kick off the first match of the tournament at the MetLife Stadium which staged Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the FIFA Club World Cup final earlier this month and will also host the World Cup final in less than a year’s time. Moyes, speaking at a Premier League Community Showcase event held at Washington Elementary School in Kearney, New Jersey, doesn’t want to play down the significance and said: “It’s a huge backdrop for this game to be played. It’s not too long ago that we might not have been able to compete in this tournament.
“We have to be thankful that we’re in it. If we want to get the name back on the map then we have to start doing something about it.
“I’m hoping in the next coming months and years we’ll be able to do that. It’s great to be here in New York, we’re only here for a short period and I think we’ll all enjoy playing at the MetLife Stadium.”
After taking on the Cherries, Moyes then faces the two former employers who bookended his almost dozen years away from Everton between 2013-25. He said: “They nearly called this the David Moyes tournament, rather than the Premier League Summer Series! Look, I had unbelievable times at West Ham, incredible moments, and I’ve made so many good friends.
“I have to say, Manchester United was a great club as well. They’ve got so many good things.
“I’ve got no hard feelings about any of them. I’ve got good friends from both clubs, and I look forward to seeing them over the next week or so.”
Everton go into their USA trip having come from behind to beat League One Port Vale 2-1 in a behind closed doors friendly – the day before they flew out – in what was the first team’s inaugural match at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Moyes is determined for his players to familiarise themselves with their new home on the Mersey waterfront and said: “It’s an amazing stadium, we love it. The grass is a bit dense, and the pitch feels very big, but here in America the pitches are also slow with the way the ball goes through the grass because of the heat.
“It was really good for us. We’ve only been down the odd time, I’ve not been down very often, but we’ll try and get a few more visits before the season starts.”
Moyes could hand a debut to the only new outfield player he’s signed this summer so far, Thierno Barry. When asked why he’d brought the France Under-21 international to Everton, he said: “I think the market for strikers is incredibly small. The other side of that is that the top end ones are incredibly expensive and we’d have probably wiped out a good part of our budget that we’ve got.
“Also, we wouldn’t have been able to attract the top ones as we’ve not got European football. So, he’s got a profile of an Everton centre-forward in some ways.
“But he’s raw and he’s going to take a bit of time and we have to accept that. For the money we’re paying nowadays for him, it wouldn’t get you your top end strikers, so we’re hoping we can work on him and make him better.
“We’re looking forward to seeing him playing. He’s a really game boy and I hope we will continue to improve him.”
The Blues’ £27.5million recruit from Villarreal is now competing with Beto to spearhead the attack but Moyes remains a big admirer of the Guinea-Bissau international’s approach. He said: “I think the biggest compliment I could give him is that he’s extremely humble. He laughs at himself.
“But probably every day we’re saying to him: ‘Come on, you come off the training ground.’ He really is trying to improve in everything he does.
“He’s a really pleasant lad. Sometimes, when you work that hard and you do things and maybe you get an opening, you take it, and he deserves it because he’s certainly working hard.
“It might not make him exactly what you would want but it’s not that he’s not tried. He’s a really, really great boy that way.
“If you look at the modern day centre-half, they want no contact, they don’t want them to be that big anymore and like them to be able to play off both feet. Then you’ve got someone up against you who is rough and raucous, willing to try things like running in behind and is a powerful, big boy.
“So, he’s got bits about him you wouldn’t enjoy playing against. I think a lot of managers would say that, they’re always worried about Beto and his unpredictability for us is certainly the same for defenders as well.”
Moyes took Everton to the USA on half a dozen separate occasions during his first spell in charge, but he believes this trip could be rather different than what has come before. He said: “This is the first time that we’ve done New York and New Jersey. We just felt that it gave the players a wee bit more freedom.
“They can train hard, and we can let them have a bit of time as well, so we didn’t feel like we were in a training camp all the time. There is freedom with it.
“Obviously it’s changed and this competition has changed. It’s different because we’ve got three big games.
“In the past we’ve played Major League Soccer sides or the MLS All-Stars team in Salt Lake City. We were in different places at different times and the games didn’t have quite as much media coverage or kudos as this.
“Now, we’re involved in a sort of Premier League tournament out here, which is slightly different. I don’t think teams enjoy playing each other all of the time.
“We liked coming and playing the MLS teams, it was different and it was something different for them at the time as well, but obviously we’re up against three Premier League teams who we face quite regularly.”
A young David Moyes holds a trophy with a Celtic team-mate when visiting Kearny, New Jersey
Perhaps Moyes’ admiration for coming to America was forged back in his formative years though as it turns out that Kearny is a place he travelled to as a schoolboy with his home city club Celtic. However, he shrugged off claims from some of the locals that they defeated their Scottish visitors with mists of time seemingly clouding what really happened, although there is photographic evidence of the Blues boss holding a large trophy in the New Jersey town that seems to support his version of events.
He said: “I don’t think they beat our team when we were here. We came because it’s a big Celtic area, it’s full of Scots and Irish.
“There’s a pub there called The Scots. I’m going to walk up after and see it because it’s probably been almost 40 years since I’ve been here.
“We were here as 15-year-old boys and stayed with families. We had a brilliant time and the hospitality we got was incredible.
“It was a big thing. We used to love coming here and we used to get a day’s trip into New York.”