Where to begin? Everton have emerged from the summer transfer window consumed by a sense of malaise that has undermined all of the work David Moyes and his side put in last season.

Everton have long been tagged as frugal spenders when market stalls open for business. Of 12 clubs who have spent the past ten years in the Premier League, only Crystal Palace's outlay stands beneath that of the Toffees.

It's not good enough, and it needs to change. Everton are weaker now than they were when Moyes' side limped to the finish line last season, finishing 13th after catching the scent of Champions League qualificiation two months earlier.

With only 18 outfield senior players to choose from until January at the earliest, Moyes' side are going to be light on their feet, and fumbling Folarin Balogun on deadline day could be the most costly mistake of them all.

Why fumbling Balogun will be so costly for Everton

Penny for Moyes' thoughts? How about penny for the thoughts of the wider Evertonian persuasion, who are now subject to potential misery due to the ineptitude of The Friedkin Group and the failure of sporting director Angus Kinnear.

What a mess. Balogun scored 19 goals for Monaco last season, including a run of ten goals from as many matches from February. He was hand-picked as the perfect new frontman to spearhead the Everton charge, and a £39m deal had been agreed.

He had flown to Merseyside, alighted at Finch Farm to complete a medical, during which the Blues found a fitness concern that threatened to jeopardise the deal. They continued, seeking to restructure club-to-club terms and lodging an unsuccessful loan bid for Manchester United's Joshua Zirkzee. That disquieted Balogun, who pulled the plug.

Herein lies the crux of this deadline-day disasterclass. Balogun was angered by Everton's efforts to sign someone else, and he pulled out late on, scuppering Everton in their attempts to replace Beto with a high-class goalscorer.

Last season, Thierno Barry blew hot and cold, and though he has started the new campaign emphatically with four goals and an assist from three games in 2025/26, he was wasteful in last weekend's 1-1 draw to Bournemouth, missing two big chances and completing only five passes across 70 minutes.

He was replaced by a powerful frontman in Beto who is no longer on Merseyside, and Moyes must be infuriated with how things panned out over the closing stages of the transfer window.

Everton failed to replace Iliman Ndiaye, selling the Senegalese star for £65m, possibly below his expected value in today's market. That's a tough one to swallow, but the decision to part with Beto and the subsequent failure to sign a single striker is an egregious sin.

Moyes has no choice but to make do. Just how resourceful can the grizzled Scotsman be? Well, we're about to find out, with a prolific academy forward showing that he has the potential to make a difference over the course of the campaign.

Everton already have their answer to Balogun

It's going to be a big year for Barry, who now stands between success and purgatory as Everton's focal frontman. Last season, he only scored eight times in the Premier League, with his goals coming in bursts.

With no support at No. 9, that has to change, but Moyes could actually find an unlikely solution in youth star Braiden Graham, who scored 21 goals for the development side last season.

Graham, 18 years old, is a Northern Irish youth international who broke onto the scene with Linfield in his homeland before transferring to Everton in 2024 as a scholar. Months on, he signed a professional contract and has since become a mainstay for the development outfit.

A tactical chameleon, Graham is devastating in front of goal, with 21 goals last season - including 12 from 18 matches in the Premier League 2. Praised as "a good finisher" by Everton U21 boss Paul Tait, that may well translate to the highest level.

Graham has already featured for Everton this season in the EFL Trophy. The youthful Toffees might have lost 6-3 to Stockport County, but Graham left the pitch with two goals and an assist under his belt.

Last year, he also sat on the bench as Everton beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 away from home. However, Moyes opted against handing him his senior debut for the club.

It is easy in passing to argue that a rising star such as Graham has the natural instincts in front of goal to succeed at the highest level. But to leave the garden of his youth and forage from the wilderness of the Premier League will be another thing entirely.

Much will depend on how Graham copes with the physicality of the Premier League. Should he pass that test, the young forward could prove an unlikely difference-maker for an Everton side who desperately need a new hero.