David Moyes faces wait to get back on track
DAVID MOYES admits it will be "quite a while" before Everton are ready to realistically challenge in the Premier League this season.
And the Goodison manager concedes he doesn't know if it will be possible to bring in the "six or seven" players he now believes are required before the transfer window closes in a fortnight.
Everton began their campaign with only 10 fit senior professionals as they slumped to a 3-2 home defeat at home to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Moyes has so far failed in his attempts to bring new recruits to the club, despite being linked to a string of big names during the summer.
With a clutch of first-team regulars either recovering for injury or still striving for match fitness, the Everton manager was forced to hand 17-year-old Jack Rodwell a full debut and name a substitutes' bench without a first-team outfield start between them.
And Moyes said: "It might be quite a while before we are ready. We have got injured players to come back, we had some players away in Africa who we knew were going to take a little bit longer to get ready.
"Tim Cahill isn't back yet, Leon Osman missed a good majority of the pre-season and has only just returned. He only passed a fitness test before the game. We have got young boys as well so if we picked up an injury or two, we might be in trouble.
"Joseph Yobo also had extra time off because of his situation in the summer. We have got players at all different levels and all different periods of their preparation.
"We have really only had four or five players who have done all the work.
That's Jagielka, Lescott, Neville and Valente. There were no excuses for them but some of them didn't do their job against Blackburn. That was disappointing."
Moyes remains convinced there will be new faces at Goodison by the end of the month,
with Everton having not given up hope of signing Alan Smith, Stephane M'bia and Joao Moutinho.
But he admits that he is wary of relying too much on the current batch of youngsters, with Jose Baxter having come off the bench on Saturday to become the youngest player in Everton's history at 16 years and 196 days old.
"I said in the summer that I needed to get five players," he said. "It could now be up to six or seven. Is getting seven players in possible? I don't know.
"I'm only going to bring quality in. We haven't got the money to go out and buy six £15m players. We don't have that, so of course we are going to bring players in who are down at the lower end of the market.
"But - as I've always said - I'm looking to get the main players in first. Then we will look at what we do after that.
"In truth, I don't know whether many of the kids are that ready. When you get in, you have to prove that you are. You have to learn. It's the same in every walk of life. Some of them learn very quickly, others need nurturing by someone more experienced and they also need good teaching.
"But they should be proud. They have been good enough to get to this level. I have to let these boys know that what they have done is a great achievement."
Meanwhile, Everton will be without Victor Anichebe for next Saturday's game at West Brom after the striker helped Nigeria to a semi-final clash against Belgium in the Olympic Games in Beijing. Nigeria will either face Argentina or Brazil in the final on Saturday, or play in the bronze medal match the previous day.
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