With money tight across the board due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Everton have spent just £1.8million on new players ahead of this month’s deadline and welcomed four players – Demarai Gray, Andros Townsend, Asmir Begovic and Andy Lonergan – to Goodison Park since the beginning of the summer transfer window and boss Rafa Benitez has insisted that at least one more signing should be possible before the end of the summer transfer window.
With Gray being the only signing to command a transfer fee, Townsend, Begovic and Lonergan were all snappily signed up as free agents.
Everton desperately need to raise additional funds through player sales if Benitez is to make any further moves over the coming days as the likes of James Rodriguez and Moise Kean are said to be available, with the pair currently taking home around £300,000 per week between them in wages.
To help facilitate the deal, the former Barcelona pair of Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes could also be shown the exit door this summer in order to provide Everton with some additional spending power.
Benitez attributed the club’s tight-fisted approach to the transfer market on Friday to FFP regulations but declared that he is hoping to dip back into the market before the window closes.
“It is a very simple situation, we have to follow these rules,” the Everton boss told reporters.
“We have to adapt our strategy to that and if we can get rid of players we can bring players in. We have to be creative and find solutions the best way possible.
“I am confident we will do something, maybe not everything, but we will do something. The transfer window is not easy for anyone.
“You can see some teams with a lot of money and others who don’t have too much, but I am confident we are working hard to try and find solutions.
“Maybe not the ideal solutions that everybody could be expecting but finding solutions that will give us the chance to improve the squad, improve the team and then be as competitive as we want to be.”
Everton’s Premier League campaign kicked off to a near-perfect start with a comfortable 3-1 win over Southampton last weekend despite five players including Rodriguez and Kean having been forced to isolate as a result of COVID-19 complications.
The latter has since recovered and will be available for selection against Leeds United this afternoon, but the remaining four absentees will not be involved.
Looking ahead to the fixture at Elland Road, Benitez admitted that Marcelo Bielsa’s side will be a handful to cope witha but underlined his confidence in his own players to get the job done.
“Obviously it’s a different challenge,” he added.
“Normally when a manager has been in a job for some time, there is an advantage. We cannot complain, we are happy with where we are.
“I am pleased with the attitude of the players, we will see. Still we have some issues. It’s not just two to three days.
“Moise Kean for example was coming back so we have some new faces but still some problems. Moise Kean is the one that’s coming back at the moment.”