SAM ALLARDYCE has made signing a top class forward his main priority this summer as Wayne Rooney edges closer to his move to America.
Rooney is Everton’s leading scorer with 11 goals this season – but the ex-England captain has failed to hit the net since December and is now closing in on a move to DC United.
And Allardyce knows he has to find a way of adding more goals to his squad if the club are to seriously challenge the big clubs in the Premier League.
Despite uncertainty over his own position at Goodison Park, the 63-year-old is pressing ahead with plans for a major overhaul of players this summer.
The biggest area focusing his mind is in attack, where a return of just 43 goals in 37 league games so far this season is evidence of a major weakness in the Everton group.
Allardyce said: “The next level of recruitment has to be quality players to get into the team and make them better than what they are at this moment in time.
“There is an area we need to improve and that is goals. Wayne is the leading goalscorer but quite a few of those are penalties so that is the main aim if you are going to finish higher in the league.
“We still, I think, need another goalscorer that gets 15 or more goals in the Premier League next season because the goal tally has to be at a certain level to achieve sixth and we are way below that level at this moment in time.
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“You would need at least two players to be at the 15 mark and you need the midfielders and wide players to be in the sevens to tens.
“Across the board probably a midfield player and another defender and if there were three high-quality players, that would be enough for Everton to challenge higher up the table.”
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Everton travel to West Ham for the final game of the season knowing a point will be enough to secure eighth – a vast improvement on the position they found themselves in when Allardyce was appointed.
But there is a sizeable section of the club’s fan-base who are unhappy with the style of football he is serving up, and are attempting to make their feelings known.
It has forced Allardyce to defend his position despite delivering what he was asked to do when he took over in November with the club sitting 13th and three points above the drop zone.
He added: “All the players have achieved a fantastic position in the league from where I started and that is down to all the players getting to grips to the situation and then fighting their way through it.
“Yes we can all play better, we can all do more, but at the end of the day what they have done has been very good indeed.
“We have overcome the problems, for instance injuries particularly and a loss of form with some players who we expected to do better, we’ve had and still produced results but overall the squad has worked very hard to achieve what it has achieved.”
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