David Moyes has admitted that a European push for Everton this season would require "a lot of work to do", as the club braces for a battle to keep hold of star player Iliman Ndiaye.
The Blues enter the final days of the transfer window with a smaller first team squad than they ended the last campaign with, and without having secured a new right back, a major summer priority. They are also braced for a battle to keep Ndiaye amid interest from Manchester City.
Moyes on Ndiaye and the transfer window
Moyes fears that, should his winger depart, it would come too late to reinvest the riches from his sale to help his team. Responding to City's interest, he said: "The first thing I would say is I'm certainly not encouraging a bid, that's for sure. I'm not encouraging that in a million years."
Everton believe they hold the cards over Ndiaye's future given he has three years left on his current deal. His refusal to sign new terms offered this year is problematic, though, and he has stated his ambition is to play in the Champions League.
Should a bid large enough for Everton to accept come in, Moyes is concerned it would not enable him to adequately replace the Senegal international. He said: "I think it would be very difficult to get it reinvested if anything came in. We are getting into a really late period now."
Europe ambitions and squad changes
Club chief executive Angus Kinnear last week said the ambition for this season was to mount a stronger push for Europe after a winless seven-game finale to last season saw Everton plummet into the bottom half of the table, stating: "I think we are in a better place, we are coming off a higher base so everybody is thinking about how we mount a challenge for Europe and don't fade in the last critical matches."
On the eve of his side's trip to Bournemouth, Moyes acknowledged his team produced a shock last year by placing themselves in contention for a top eight finish, and therefore a repeat challenge "could" be possible. He said: "I think there would be a lot of work to do to put us in that category, but nobody put us in that category last year and for most of the season we ran close. The positives we would take are that we probably didn't expect to do it last year, so we probably go into this season thinking pretty much the same, but you never know. We have started the season well and the players have started the games good, so that gives me hope that it could be a possibility."
Everton have signed five players on permanent deals this summer but two, Merlin Rohl and Tyrique George, ended last season on loan at Hill Dickinson. Christian Norgaard, Hayden Hackney and Brennan Johnson have also arrived, but Seamus Coleman, Idrissa Gueye, Dwight McNeil and loanee Jack Grealish have departed.
Right-back priority and Grealish option
Reflecting on the window so far, Moyes, whose side followed an opening day win over Crystal Palace with a rout of Preston North End in the Carabao Cup, said: "I think we need to do more. I'm saying there's not much time but I'll still try to see what we can do. I think we need to do much more if possible."
One option, regardless of what happens with Ndiaye, is a return for Grealish. Everton have remained in conversation with his representatives through the summer and are among the clubs he could yet call home from Wednesday morning.
But the priority remains resolving the longstanding issue at right-back. He said: "100% we want to sign a right back. Absolutely, we want to sign a right-back, but I think that it'd be wrong not to mention how well Merlin Rohl has done since he went there. It might be that he struggles as time goes on, who knows? But we're 100% trying to get a right-back, and we will try and do that right up until the end of the window."
