Moyes promises more signings
David Moyes is promising more new signings for the Everton faithful – but refused to say whether Craig Bellamy would be arriving at Goodison Park this summer.
Moyes has already spent nearly £9m (€13.5m) on luring Tottenham’s Simon Davies, Danish defender Per Kroldrup and teenage ‘keeper John Ruddy to Merseyside but the buying spree is not over yet as the Scot plots Everton’s first foray into the Champions League.
It is thought the Toffeemen are in pole position to land Bellamy, who has been given a week to sort out his future by Newcastle and appears to have opted against extending his stay at Celtic but is also being courted by Aston Villa.
Moyes is understood to have had talks with the controversial Welsh striker, who has no future at St James’ Park following his much-publicised bust-up with manager Graeme Souness.
However, as he unveiled his confirmed new recruits, Moyes remained coy on any Bellamy approach.
“I don’t talk about players at other clubs,” he said. “It is not my way.
“We are hoping to land one or two more before the season starts though, that is for sure, and ideally we would like to get them in quickly so they can get some pre-season friendlies under their belt.
“The hardest thing when you are bringing in so many players is to get them playing together, so we are not in the ideal situation.
“All we can do is hope they blend quite quickly and get them running early in the season.”
Whether Bellamy signs or not, Moyes is justified in looking ahead to the new campaign with greater confidence than he was 12 months ago.
At that time, he was being besieged by questions over Wayne Rooney which continued to dog him until the teenage striker was eventually sold to Manchester United on the last day of August.
Everton made light of the immense loss to confound the critics predicting relegation by landing a top four slot and now Moyes is investing the money from Rooney’s sale in an attempt to keep the Blues there.
After being forced to wait six months following his initial approach, Moyes eventually lured Davies north from White Hart Lane, and landed imposing central defender Kroldrup from Serie A outfit Udinese.
With Ruddy arriving on a full-time basis too, Moyes has been one of the more proactive managers in a transfer market that has remained largely flat this summer, still devoid of the big-money move that could trigger a few more.
“There is a general lack of availability of players who are real quality,” he said.
“Unless you have real top money to buy the best, it is quite difficult.
“Nevertheless, we will do our best to get new players in and try to build on what we achieved last season.
“Supposedly we didn’t have a very good season last year but we didn’t do too badly. Hopefully, we can produce a similar performance next season as well.”
