Moyes banks on Beattie for goals boost
The striker has been at Goodison Park for his medical and is set to be unveiled to Everton fans before the home clash with Portsmouth tonight.
Everton cannot complete the final details of that medical until the morning of the match, but expect to be able to announce the arrival of their record signing before kick off.
But boss Moyes is confident there will be no final snags before the arrival of a player he tried desperately to sign almost six months ago.
Moyes said: “We made an offer on deadline day at the beginning of the season after we lost Wayne Rooney, but Southampton’s price was much higher than it is now and frankly they did not want to sell then.
“We are a long way down the road with the medical at the moment, but I am sure everyone can understand that because of the size of such medicals we have to make sure absolutely everything is OK.
“So we are doing that and hopefully it will all be completed in the next 24 hours.
“Hopefully, if it all goes right and we get him, it will be goals that we want from him.”
Beattie, who has been offered a four-and-a-half year contract, scored 76 goals in 233 games for Southampton, and Blackburn are believed to in line for a £1m cut of the fee as part of a sell-on clause.
Everton also insist they have had no contact from Real Madrid, following speculation that the La Liga giants are in talks with Thomas Gravesen’s agent, John Sivebaek, over a possible move to Spain. The Danish midfielder is out of contract in the summer.
Moyes said: “There has been a lot of rumours and I have spoken at length with Thomas today and we know exactly where both of us stand. It doesn’t mean he will be in Madrid in January.”
Everton hope they will have skipper Alan Stubbs back for the Pompey game - the defender having missed Sunday’s 5-2 hammering at Spurs with a back injury.
That result meant back-to-back defeats for Everton over New Year. They dare not slip up again with the race for Europe so tight.
Moyes said: “It is a rarity for us to go into a game off the back of two defeats this season. We have had two hard games, travelling to London twice to play Charlton and then Spurs and experiencing all the fatigue that goes with that, the programme could not have been much harder.
“But it does not take away from the fact that at Spurs we did not defend as well as we have been doing. That made it look a lot worse than it was.
“But now we are back at home and hopefully we can get back on track,” Moyes said.
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