Everton have concluded their summer spending with the capture of Dutch international Johnny Heitinga, who has signed for an initial fee of six million pounds. The versatile defender, who has joined from Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, joins Bilyaletdinov and Distin, who have recently finalised their moves to Goodison Park.
Johnny Heitinga is an extremely positive signing for the club. His ability to play at centre-back, right-back and as a holding midfielder will no doubt prove invaluable to Moyes, who has never made his love for versatile players a secret. His stints at both Atletico Madrid and Ajax, and his 47 caps for Holland mean that he has experience of playing at the highest level.
Heitinga, who has taken the number five shirt previously worn by Lescott, will be reunited with ex-teammate Steven Pienaar on Merseyside, in what could prove to be a stroke of managerial genius. It was evident after the FA Cup final that the right-hand side needed a makeover and Moyes could very well rekindle a Pienaar-Heitinga partnership, from the old Ajax days, as a solution.
Following Heitinga's transfer, the move for Russian midfielder Diniyar Bilyaletdinov is starting to make some more sense. The 24-year-old prefers to play on the left wing or in the middle of the park- two areas that did not need drastic improvement before the summer. It is more than likely, however, that Moyes will now bring Pienaar over to the right-hand side, allowing Bilyaletdinov to play in a position he is more comfortable in.
Some will point to the partnership of Pienaar and Baines, that proved so effective for the Toffees last season, and wonder if Moyes really has made the correct decision in splitting up the effective duo. However, that option will always be available if Moyes chooses to use it, and there is no reason why Diniyar cannot strike up a similar partnership with Baines.
The departure of Joleon Lescott to rivals Manchester City hurt Evertonian pride, of that there is no doubt. However, in hindsight, it has proven to be an excellent piece of business. If Sylvain Distin is worth £5 million, it is hard to see how Lescott is worth nearly five times the price. Granted, he is four years the junior of the Frenchman, and had longer time left on his contract, but in terms of defensive abilities, the two are almost carbon copies.
Out of the five players Everton signed last year, there were only two players that generated any real excitement around Goodison Park- Louis Saha and Marouane Fellaini. Saha, who signed from Manchester United, because of his proven goal-scoring abilities in the Premier League, and the Belgian for quite the opposite reason. Fellaini was an expensive unknown; few Evertonians had heard of him and so no-one really knew what to expect. Jacobsen, Castillo and Nash were all low-cost signings to pad out the squad, however, and none succeeded in setting pulses racing on Merseyside.
Given that Andy Johnson and James McFadden funded that business last summer, it was easy to see why Evertonians were not optimistic about this transfer window. It felt as if the Moyes regime was starting to run out of steam; the market was inflating and Kenwright could hardly keep up, meaning the Everton boss had to sign cheap, unattatched players or loanees.
The £24 million recouped from the transfer of Lescott has given new life to Everton, though, as Moyes had somewhat of a warchest to go to town with. And for how much City got raped over Lescott, Portsmouth got raped over Distin, meaning Moyes had instantly replaced Lescott and still had a fair bit of coin to play with.
The rest of the money went to another Fellaini-esque signing, in Bilyaletdinov, and an experienced international that no doubt signals the ambition of the club. Diniyar is still an unknown, despite his whole three minutes of game-time against Wigan but any football fan worth their salt will understand just what a signing Heitinga will prove to be.
It is easy for views to be distorted with Real Madrid and Manchester City spending astronomical amounts, but it's hard to deny that Moyes may just have his best squad ever at Everton. With twenty-two first team players, the competition for places will be healthy. Everton's improvement may be asked this season, as they fight to stay in the top six in the coming campaign, but that is only because the Premier League is by far the strongest league in the World.
