David Moyes Frustrated as Everton Faces Key Weekend Clash

David Moyes cuts a frustrated figure as Everton head into the weekend with a squad that looks painfully light and a season that could tilt either way.

The Everton manager did not hide his irritation after a chaotic deadline day left him with just 18 senior outfield players and only one recognised striker, with a home clash against Manchester United looming on Sunday.

A late move for Monaco forward Folarin Balogun collapsed in the final hours of the window, while Iliman Ndiaye was sold to Manchester City, stripping Moyes of attacking options he had hoped to build around.

“Disappointed we didn't do more business, disappointed things didn't go our way in the end,” Moyes admitted at his pre-match press conference. “But sometimes in football you have to live with disappointments and we will and we'll move on.”

The Balogun saga summed up Everton’s window. Monaco managing director Thiago Scuro revealed that the USA international pulled out of a return to the Premier League because of how he felt he was treated by the club.

An issue flagged during Balogun’s medical prompted Everton to try to renegotiate the terms of the reported £40 million move. Both clubs, though, were still ready to push ahead with the deal. Then the player walked away.

“There were lots of different bits to it. It wasn't anybody's fault,” Moyes said. “Ultimately it happens in football a lot. The player had a problem in his medical and that was simply it.”

So Everton are left short. Threadbare, as their manager put it. A squad built to push on now has to prove it can simply cope.

Last season, Everton flirted with European qualification before a late stumble dragged them down to 13th. That drop still stings Moyes, who has been clear since his arrival that he wants the club back in the continental conversation, not glancing over its shoulder at the bottom three.

“I'm getting too old now to be sitting around at the bottom end,” the former Manchester United boss said. “I've said that to the players here when I came in. The job is that we challenge as close to the top end of the league as we can.”

He knows the outside noise. Thin squad. One striker. Key target gone. Another sold. On paper, it looks like a season of firefighting.

Inside Finch Farm, Moyes is trying to turn that into fuel.

“I've got to say, they've done a brilliant job of it last year, and I don't think we were expected to do so well as what we've done,” he added. “I've got to hope that we can do that again. There might not be a great expectation on us at this moment in time, but behind the scenes I'm rallying them.”

The rallying starts in earnest on Sunday, against his old club, with a stretched squad and a manager who insists he has no intention of growing old in another relegation scrap.