Six Everton moves for David Moyes’ perfect January transfer window

After nearly 12 years away, David Moyes returns to Goodison Park just as much a hero as when he left, somewhat remarkably as the tiki-taka-adjacent antidote to his predecessor.

The future may be brighter following the Friedkin Group’s takeover of the club and a new stadium ready to go next season, but things look incredibly bleak right now and Moyes arrives with his beloved Toffees knee-deep in a relegation battle.

Sean Dyche’s sacking reportedly means he will have less than nothing to spend in January, but he desperately needs fresh faces to aid a depleted and ailing squad.

They will have to sell to buy, which won’t be easy when you assess their saleable assets, or rely on short-term deals to ensure their safety this season. We’ve come up with six moves – three exits and three arrivals – because any more than that would be absurdly optimistic, in what we reckon is the best Moyes can hope for in his first transfer window back at the helm.

We’ve already done similar for Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Graham Potter’s West Ham, if you’re interested.

Beto out

On the surface it seems incredible that having signed Beto for £21m 18 months ago Everton have the gall to refuse all offers below £16.6m for a striker who’s scored eight goals for them.

But having dug a little deeper it’s in fact far more incredible that in their desperate quest for goals they haven’t used him more, with his coming at a half-decent rate – certainly by Everton striker standards – of one every 220 minutes.

That’s over 15 Premier League goals if you spread it over the season; a tally bettered by just three players – Tony Cottee (16 in 1993/94), Romelu Lukaku (18 in 2015/16; 25 in 2016/17) and Dominic Calvert Lewin (16 in 2020/21) – in their Premier League history.