Moyes will target six or seven "lower quality" signings
DAVID MOYES has revealed his determination to seal "six or seven" new additions to his threadbare squad in the final week of the transfer window.
But the Everton manager has admitted for the first time that he might have to settle for players of a lower quality than he had originally targeted, just to make the numbers up.
Moyes has vowed to put all his energies into addressing his crippling player shortage which left him is down to nine fit senior players for Saturday's 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion.
He gave starts to teenagers Jack Rodwell and Jose Baxter as well as playing Phil Neville with an ankle injury and sending on James Vaughan despite him being well short of full fitness.
Victor Anichebe will return to the fold this week after winning a silver medal with Nigeria in the Beijing Olympics but Tim Cahill, Tony Hibbert and Steven Pienaar are still way off returning from injury.
And that leaves Moyes with no option but to significantly strengthen in the rush before the window closes next Monday.
"I've said all along we need to bring in six or seven players this week," he said. "But I've not brought in one in however many weeks, so there you go.
"I think we will be looking at loans and we'll be trying all routes. These are the last days of the sales and there's not much left.
"I hope to get maybe a couple but for the quality I feel I need to get for us to continue - I don't know if you can get that with just a few days to go."
Tiago has already refused a loan move from Juventus and Albert Riera is set to hold out for a move to Liverpool despite Everton seemingly willing to go closer to Espanyol's asking price for the left-winger than their Merseyside rivals.
A host of targets are still on Moyes's radar but more than three months of the summer have passed without him signing a new player - or his new contract.
But he added: "I'm fine. There's a contract there, I've spoken to the chairman and when we get round to doing it, it's available to do."
Everton's first victory of the season at The Hawthorns left Moyes relieved and thankful for the group of players he has at his disposal, but guilty that he is not fulfilling his promise to take them on to the next level.
"I've got a really good relationship with the players," Moyes said. "They know how I work and I've got people like Arteta, Cahill, Lescott, Jagielka and Neville, a group together on the understanding I am going to progress Everton and make them better. And at the moment I'm letting them down.
"My ambition is to develop it and this summer is the first I've not. I've spoken to them. They understand. They do get annoyed when I'm shouting at them, but I feel I just have to get some more players to help them out."
Moyes added: "The win meant a lot because we are patched together, we've got players playing out of position and it's limiting how we can play.
"I've never know it where we have been so short of players in positions in my time."
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