David Moyes has warned Sunderland supporters not to expect any transfer market alchemy from him this month.
“I’d be kidding you on if I said the players we’re hoping to bring in this month are going to make a big difference because, first of all, we probably couldn’t get that level of player and, secondly, we probably wouldn’t have the finances to do that,” said Sunderland’s manager before day’s trip to West Bromwich Albion. “To suggest that a player we might bring in would be making a big difference would not be correct.”
Such brutal honesty may prompt mixed feelings among fans who saw Sam Allardyce’s acquisition of Lamine Koné, Wahbi Khazri and Jan Kirchhoff this time last year facilitate a last-gasp escape from relegation.
“I think the players that came in at the same time last year did make a big difference and did a good job,” said Moyes, who has invited his former Everton defender Joleon Lescott, a free agent after AEK Athens terminated his contract in November, to train at Sunderland with a view to potentially offering the 34-year-old a short-term contract. “This season a lot will be dictated by us getting some of our own players back into the squad following injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations. I think we can survive without buying but we’d need to play really well and get our boys back from injury.”
Though Moyes had a £10m bid for Robbie Brady turned down by Norwich City this week, Sunderland’s £140m debt and 19th position in the Premier League both dictate that Allardyce’s successor has strictly limited room for transfer market manoeuvre.
Even so, Moyes concedes he is likely to need to sell to buy. “You’ve just got to trust me that I’ll be finding ways to try to balance the books the best I can,” said the manager, who has already reached his limit of two domestic loans after borrowing Adnan Januzaj and Jason Denayer from Manchester United and Manchester City respectively during the summer. “I’d say we’ll probably be looking at free agents and [overseas] loans”
Meanwhile Moyes has ordered Vito Mannone, the goalkeeper currently deputising for the injured Jordan Pickford, to up his standards, following a series of recent mistakes. “I’ve told Vito about things he should have saved in the last few games,” he said. “I’ve told him I’m disappointed.”
Moyes, who also insisted there had been no fresh offers for either Jermain Defoe or Patrick van Aanholt and was unaware of any interest in Koné from Allardyce’s Crystal Palace, will await developments off the pitch as he attempts to secure a first league win in five attempts at West Brom on Saturday.
Currently in eighth place, Tony Pulis’s side completed the £10m purchase of Jake Livermore from Hull City on Friday on a four-and-a-half-year deal and the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder could go straight into the squad to face Sunderland. Moyes believes that Pulis, who could now move for the Angers defender Romain Thomas after Southampton’s José Fonte rejected a move to The Hawthorns, deserves real credit for his work since joining the club in January 2015 .
He said: “Tony has done a good job wherever he has gone. Given time, he always puts together a good team, and he has done. You can see them beginning to build on what they have done and sometimes it takes a little bit of a while to appreciate how good a job he has done.”