By Sam Stone

2nd Feb, 2023 | 4:10pm

Finance expert makes 'strange' Everton claim after deadline day failure

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire would’ve been “very surprised” if Sean Dyche hadn’t laid down his recruitment plan to Everton ahead of his appointment.

The Toffees endured a miserable January, becoming the only Premier League club that failed to make a signing during the window.

Maguire has suggested it was “very strange” that the club didn’t land anyone after appointing the former Burnley boss.

“I would’ve been very surprised in Sean Dyche hadn’t gone into those interviews and said we need to do X, Y and Z in terms of recruitment. He’s a very thorough individual, he would’ve identified those weaknesses and come up with a few suggestions as to how they could’ve been plugged,” said Maguire (Price of Football, 3m 29s, 1 February)

“For Everton to do absolutely nothing does seem very strange.”

Move on

Apart from the potential of a free agent joining, Everton have to move on quickly from their transfer disappointment. Andre Ayew is a player who could well come through the door at Goodison Park. Fabrizio Romano reported on 1 February that the 33-year-old is on his way to the UK to hold talks with the Toffees.

However, the former Swansea man will certainly not be the answer to all of Everton’s problems. Transfer woes need to be put behind them now. This group of players have been dramatically underperforming of late, but they’ve still shown they’re capable of competing in the Premier League.

The performance at The Etihad against Manchester City was just one example of this team showing they’re potentially better than their current league position and with Dyche in charge, they do stand a chance of staying up.

The fans will back the players to the very end despite their recent ineptness. We saw just how important the Goodison Park faithful were last season and something similar will have to occur in the second half of the 2022/23 campaign.