Everton manager Frank Lampard has admitted that his side need to bring in new signings during the January transfer window with no new faces having arrived at Goodison Park so far this month.
The Toffees, who host bottom club Southampton on Saturday, have dropped into the Premier League relegation zone after just one win in 10 matches. Asked what he could say to ease fans’ frustrations, Lampard said: “I don’t want to say things to ease frustration for the sake of it, it would be words. Of course we want the action of bringing people in.
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“As we see, it’s January, clubs around us are doing it, the Premier League is constantly moving forwards, every team. Obviously we’re working towards that and we need to do that because we need to help the squad and as a coach, that’s what I want because I want to have more competition, particularly in attacking areas which is the main part of our game when you look at this season where we’ve been short and that affects points, results and feeling.
“So we want to help to be competitive there and of course we’re working towards that and we have to work within our parameters and that’s the work that’s going on here. But I’m not going to say loose words until the fans see what we do because I appreciate they only want the best for the squad, they want to see players coming in, I get it.
"Due diligence has been done. It's our job. You have to look at budgets and the players that are available. The World Cup affected things slightly but now things are starting to move.
"It certainly hasn't been a loose eye (on the transfer market). We want to improve the team but it's not as simple as that. We are talking about the attacking areas of the pitch, it's probably the hardest place to recruit, because we know that players that really deliver at that end of the pitch cost a lot of money and maybe aren't going to move. So we have to work as hard as we can to try to bring players in to improve us. It's important we do that, it's part of our responsibility to move the club forward."
And on outgoings, he added: "There's always moving parts, whether there's interest and whether it's better for us for the player to move on, whether it's in the player's interests or ideally if it's both and they move on.
"At the moment there isn't much happening on that front but I always get asked 'who are you going to bring in?' But also with a squad it's important players move on. That's balancing the squad and part of the process.
"We're open to it in the right areas, for sure."
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