Moyes has made his views clear - can Everton's owners deliver?

[BBC] [Getty Images] The Friedkin Group are rarely seen and barely heard - so when they announced via chief executive Angus Kinnear that they regarded missing out on European football last season as "failure" it came as a surprise, not least to David Moyes. Everton were in one of the nine European places on offer to English clubs when Merlin Rohl gave them the lead against Sunderland in their penultimate game of last season. Instead, in keeping with a collapse that saw them fail to win any of their last seven league games, Everton lost 3-1 at home to the Europe-bound Black Cats, before a final-day defeat at Tottenham left them in 13th place. In an interview with BBC Radio Merseyside, Kinnear said: "They viewed it as a failure because it was a failure. The Friedkins are winners, they want to win and we didn't win anything." Moyes' response when this was put to him was intriguing. It begs the question whether the 63-year-old is on the same page as Everton's American powerbrokers, who also own Italian club Roma, when it comes to ambition. He said: "I'm surprised they were disappointed because there was never any time anyone said to me, 'David, you have to make Europe or you have to be in and around the top end'. "Everybody wanted to make sure we moved into the new stadium safe, while not having too difficult a season, and we certainly did that last year." Former Everton midfielder Leon Osman told BBC Sport: "I was a bit surprised at the statement and the timing because, as Moyes said, I don't think anyone was saying for much of last season that not getting into Europe was a failure. "I do think when you get on the cusp of something and it slips away, it can feel like you've failed, but I would call it a disappointment rather than a failure." It is clear Moyes wants the Friedkin Group to deliver more backing before the summer transfer window closes to improve and bolster a squad which ran out of steam so badly last season. He said: "For us to be a side which is competitive, we have still got a lot of work to do. Hopefully we are able to try to do some of it. We need more players. "Our squad is not big enough and we need to get more quality in some areas, if we can do. I'm not sure we will, but it's not for me and the want of trying, that's for sure." The messages were certainly mixed, adding to a summer of differing fortunes in the transfer market, that even led Prime Minister and fanatical Evertonian Andy Burnham to say: "There is one thing I would just ask, sign a right-back." This is what makes the final few days of the transfer window so vital for Moyes, who is in the final year of his contract, and Everton. Moyes has made his views clear - now can his wish align with Everton's owners to deliver? Read the full article here