David Moyes on Everton's Record Compensation Bill and Summer Transfer Plans

David Moyes insists Everton’s record compensation bill to Burnley will not derail the club’s summer transfer plans – and says he has been given clear assurances from the board that recruitment will go ahead as planned.

Everton have been ordered to pay around £35m to Burnley after an independent commission ruled the Clarets were entitled to compensation over the Toffees’ breaches of the Premier League’s Profit & Sustainability Rules in the 2021/22 season. It is the largest compensation award of its kind.

Burnley argued that, had Everton’s points deduction been applied in the season to which the charges related, they would have avoided relegation. Everton were docked eight points across the 2023/24 campaign for PSR breaches, but the Lancashire club pursued their case regardless and have now been backed.

Everton have appealed the verdict and issued a strongly worded statement, saying they “believe the ruling is fundamentally flawed in both law and fact”.

Moyes: “Really disappointing” – but transfers “won’t have any effect”

Speaking on talkSPORT, Moyes did not hide his frustration at the outcome, even as he stressed he is not across every legal detail.

“I’m not up to the situation exactly how it is and obviously the club are challenging it at the moment as well, which is really important, but it’s really disappointing,” he said.

The former West Ham and Manchester United manager questioned what this case might trigger elsewhere in the game.

“I don’t know if this opens a huge can of worms with other events as well. Teams who have maybe not got promoted, for example, because the Premier League teams are having problems with PSR.

“I felt that we had paid our dues, if that’s right, and we had done it already, but for this to come back to us, it feels like an individual case.

“But I don’t know if it’s going to open up more things for other clubs to do something similar.”

The financial hit is eye-watering for a club that has already been walking a PSR tightrope. Yet Moyes was unequivocal when asked if it will restrict Everton’s ability to strengthen.

“They told me no,” he said. “They told me that it wouldn’t have any effect on it and look I was aware of this probably four or five weeks ago when it was happening that this would be the case.”

Everton’s season, the warning to the Premier League and the Friedkin factor

Moyes’ reflections on the pitch were typically blunt. He argued that Everton’s campaign only unravelled late on.

“I’m hoping that it doesn’t because last season, as you rightly say, we had a good season except the last month or so when we sort of blew up and we were in a really, really strong position.”

That late collapse still clearly nags at him, but he turned quickly back to the wider landscape and the message he feels this ruling sends.

“So if it’s anything I hope it’s a message to the Premier League. It’s so difficult. If you don’t do well you can find yourself in trouble again. We don’t want to be back in those situations we were in the past.”

Everton’s new owners, the Friedkin Group, are central to the next phase. Moyes said the prospective custodians knew this storm might be coming.

“My understanding is that the Friedkins were aware of this when they were buying the club and there was a possibility this could happen.

“So the answer to that is I really hope it has no effect on what we’re going to do in the summer.”

Hope, assurances from above and an appeal process still to play out: Everton now have to navigate a summer in which the numbers on the balance sheet are under as much scrutiny as the names on Moyes’ team sheet.