Moshiri offers update on new Everton stadium, transfer plans and Ross Barkley reunion

Farhad Moshiri has seemingly buried the hatchet with Jim White after appearing on the Scot’s Talksport programme on Friday morning for a brief if wide-ranging interview.

White was effectively Moshiri’s mouthpiece in the early months of his tenure at Goodison Park, with the billionaire rarely speaking to the media except when appearing on White’s Talksport show or on Sky Sports News.

Moshiri promised to stop talking to White “when he’s upset at night” at the club’s AGM in January, no doubt to the relief of the media department after White broke a number of stories before the news was officially announced.

Ten months on and Moshiri has spoken to White again, though he appeared a lot more careful with his words on this occasion.

The Toffees’ majority shareholder spoke about a wide range of subjects, starting with Sunday’s game against Chelsea and a reunion with Ross Barkley:

“He has been doing fine. He is an ex-academy boy, we wish him well, not necessarily on Sunday, but we wish him well.

“We follow him and like all our ex-academy boys, like Wayne [Rooney], we wish him well and I think he is doing well.”

When asked about the club’s plans for the January transfer window, Moshiri suggested the club would be relatively frugal after such a busy summer:

“We bought a lot of players. I think we will do well to bed in the players we have got. We have a £30m player who hasn’t played yet.”

Moshiri continued on a similar theme when asked about Ademola Lookman, suggesting the focus is on developing young players rather than big-name, big-money signings.

“We have some really good players like Ademola Lookman who is not getting game time. We really want to look after our young talent, and not just spend money and deprive them of a good career.”

The inevitable new stadium question popped up, with Moshiri replying:

“It is progressing. The new stadium is not a luxury because we need it to energise the whole club. We are committed.”

And, finally, on the early impact Marco Silva has had at Goodison Park.

“They play the way Evertonians want their team to play, without fear and playing good football. Getting results are important and the signs are good - we just need to keep at it and hope we can build on it.”

The key takeaways from this are Moshiri’s comments about the transfer window and the new stadium,

It seems Silva will not be given a signifiant amount to spend in January given the number of players he brought in over the summer.

I’m not too concerned about this as there isn’t an urgent need to plug gaps in the side, certainly in January which is a notoriously difficult market to work in.

His comments about Ademola Lookman also suggests Silva will look to the club’s youngsters for solutions in the second half of the campaign rather than a pricey winter shopping spree.

Moshiri’s comments about the new stadium continue the party line about the club’s determination to see the project through, though it was interesting the way he said it was “not a luxury”, basically confirming it is essential to Everton’s business plan going forward.

With the public consultations starting next week as fans we just have to play our part, contributing when required and remaining patient as the process continues.