Moyes reveals he has never spoken to Everton owner Friedkin after striker search collapses

David Moyes has revealed he has never spoken directly to Dan Friedkin, the chief executive of Everton’s owners the Friedkin Group, after the club endured one of the most chaotic deadline days of the summer transfer window.

Everton were left with Thierno Barry as their only senior striker following a frantic and ultimately fruitless pursuit of attacking reinforcements. The Toffees sold Beto to Fiorentina and then watched a £40 million deal for Monaco’s Folarin Balogun collapse after the American forward had already arrived at the club’s training ground. Late bids for Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee and Aston Villa’s Tammy Abraham also came to nothing.

“My real contact is Angus [Kinnear, Everton CEO],” Moyes said ahead of the weekend fixture against Manchester United. “Angus is the one who I would go to see. Rishi [Majithia, TFG representative] is the next one and then the head of the Friedkin family in America. I don’t really get any direct conversations with them, but I do through Rishi — he is the one I would speak to.”

The admission raises fresh questions about the lines of communication between Moyes and the club’s American ownership at a time when Everton’s squad depth is being stretched to its limits.

Moyes was measured in his assessment of the window’s collapse, saying the breakdown of the Balogun deal “wasn’t anyone’s fault” while conceding that the club left themselves exposed by working so close to the deadline. “We probably shouldn’t have been as late as that,” he said. “We should probably have tried to get the work done a lot earlier than that.”

Everton did secure one notable addition, with Jack Grealish returning on loan from Manchester City, but the £65 million sale of Iliman Ndiaye to City offset any goodwill that move generated among supporters.

Moyes acknowledged the difficulty of his position but stopped short of laying blame at the ownership’s door. “The Everton job is always a hard job and it’s a club that is used to having some difficult times,” he said. “We don’t have a huge squad of players — it is not a number we would ideally want — but sometimes you need to do something special in football and we will attempt to do something special.”

With a threadbare attacking unit and questions swirling about the club’s internal structure, Moyes faces an uphill task to stabilise Everton’s season before the January window offers another opportunity to address the squad’s shortcomings.