David Moyes makes 'another Fellaini' admission as Everton have 'two proposals' rejected

David Moyes has admitted that Everton will not be breaking their transfer record in the closing stages of the window.

The Toffees manager remains keen on bolstering his options before Monday’s 11pm transfer deadline. That’s despite Everton securing a third successive victory as they thrashed Leicester City 4-0 and moved 10 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

But because of profit and sustainability rules, the Blues are restricted as to what they can spend. Everton are in talks with Flamengo attacking midfielder Carlos Alcaraz about a loan deal and want another striker with Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Armando Broja sidelined for prolonged periods.

It has also been reported that Everton sent ‘two proposals’ for Freiburg midfielder Merlin Rohl but they were rebuffed by the German outfit.

Late nights

During his first spell as manager, Moyes made a plethora of shrewd signings. One was the 11th-hour arrival of Marouane Fellaini for a then club-record £15 million fee in September 2008. However, Moyes knows that will not be possible this time around.

Asked if he expects a late night on deadline day, Moyes replied: “I've done a few. Fellaini was the latest. Fellaini was the worst, I think it was after midnight by the time it got done. I've been in a few late ones but Fellaini's takes some beating. If we were really fortunate to bring in another Fellaini, it would be great but it's probably unfortunate in this window we might be able to do that.”

‘Wow’

When Moyes returned as Everton manager last month, the club were just one point above the Premier League relegation zone. But under his tenure, they have secured three triumphs as they duly put Leicester to the sword, and are well clear of the bottom three. Abdoulaye Doucoure scored after 10.18 seconds - the fastest goal in Toffees history - before Beto fired a double before half-time. Then in the closing stages, Iliman Ndiaye put the gloss on the win.

Moyes admitted he was stunned Everton took the lead so early against the Foxes. But he took more satisfaction from the fact that the Toffees went and scored their second goal so swiftly afterwards. And the Goodison chief is highly satisfied with the run of results that have been yielded since he returned to the hot seat.

Moyes added: “A brilliant result. A great performance in many aspects. Sometimes, we didn’t play quite so well but if you’d have given me three wins in four in the position we’re in, I’d say thanks very much, we’ll take that. But to score the goals and could have had a couple more, we had the chances today, really pleased with the players. The performance was very good and we’re doing a lot of really good things.

“Wow. After eight seconds, I was thinking: ‘My goodness, this is fabulous’. The second goal backed it up. Leicester have improved recently, they passed it well through the middle of the pitch, Harry Winks, they have got a style they played under Maresca. I was concerned about it but the minute we won the ball back, we always looked a threat. It was great to see we’re beginning to look more of a threat on the counter-attack as well and we did that today.”