Everton director of football Kevin Thelwell has opened up on the club's January transfer window and the potential for a “big summer”.

A month of transition saw new owners The Friedkin Group begin work to rebuild the club and a change in the dugout as David Moyes replaced Sean Dyche.

Moyes' return has been followed by an upturn in fortunes, with Everton winning their last three Premier League games before falling to defeat to Bournemouth in the FA Cup on Saturday.

READ MORE: Everton transfer gamble could bite before Mohamed Salah test and anxious Liverpool wait

READ MORE: I was surprised by what David Moyes did in FA Cup loss - Everton minds seemed to be elsewhere

That display and result emphasised the limitations of the squad caused by a spate of serious injuries and years of restricted spending. Moyes had urged caution over prematurely planning for life beyond a relegation battle as a result, arguing challenges still lay ahead.

With that bigger picture in mind, the Blues boss had hoped to strengthen in the market. But the hangover of the club's issues with financial rules combined with a tough market and, while Moyes had hoped for a striker, the only signing was attacking midfielder Charly Alcaraz on loan from Flamengo on transfer deadline day.

Thelwell has now addressed supporters through club media to explain the approach taken last month and the context it puts the club within.

While he said there was an awareness that new additions would have helped the first team squad, he added: “I think everybody recognises it is a very difficult window. You need two things to happen - you need somebody who wants to buy and somebody who wants to sell and that doesn’t happen so much now, particularly in this winter window. So we always knew it was going to be tough and we always knew it was going to be difficult to bring in new bodies.

“We were really pleased to get Charly in, a player we watched for some time, an Argentinian international, we liked him before when he went to Southampton and we tracked him when he went to Flamengo and it was good to get him in the building and I think he will provide us with a lot of intensity and energy and he is also a very good footballer.”

Thelwell said Alcaraz’s previous Premier League experience with Southampton would help him to settle in at Goodison and the hope is he makes a strong enough impact for the club to trigger the opportunity to make the move permanent.

Of the deal, which had to be completed in the hours after the window initially closed, Thelwell said the length of time was due to the intricacy of the negotiations but that such delicacy was required to ensure Everton secured the best deal possible.

That has been a feature of work throughout Thelwell’s three years and six windows with the Blues, a period dogged by off-field problems that have created challenges for him.

Over those six windows, Everton have received roughly £80m more than they have spent on players, with first team stalwarts like Richarlison, Anthony Gordon and Alex Iwobi having to be sold to improve the club’s financial position.

Thelwell said it had been “a very difficult period over my three years”, adding: “It has not been what anyone would have wanted for Everton Football Club. But unfortunately it is something we have had to do to either stay afloat or stay on the right side of PSR. So then for us to be able to bring in players of the quality of Iliman Ndiaye, who wasn’t having a particularly great time at Marseille but who we knew and anticipated if he came back to England that he could do it and have a big impact, is something that we are really proud of.”

Despite the constraints on business, Thelwell believed Everton started this season with a stronger squad than last year - hence the disappointment over the early months of the campaign.

After years of cautious work, there was a belief signings in January would be helpful but with the club on cusp of a brighter future ahead of the next financial year in July and the move to the new stadium, there was a desire not to put that at risk unless a deal that was too good to be true emerged.

Thelwell continued: “What you don’t want to do, being a club under our circumstances, is take all of that good work we have done over the last three years and start to flush some of that down the toilet by making poor decisions.”

While enquiries were made to provide Moyes with another option upfront, Thelwell believes the current group is strong enough to survive and to do so in a way that allows for Everton to start planning for a “big summer” in which he should be given greater resources to spend due to an easing of the club’s PSR position. More than a dozen first team players are on contracts that are set to expire in the coming months, providing the opportunity for an overhaul.

Thelwell said the summer should represent ‘evolution not revolution’ after three years in which the club has been vastly outspent by rivals.

He concluded: “It is not a badge of honour to say we have been outspent by everybody in the league but it is a necessity and it has been a necessity for the last three years. I know how we have survived, but when I look back I wonder how we have survived… We are coming out of a tunnel. We can see the light but in our reality we are not quite out of that tunnel. I feel we are in fairly good shape and that gives us a real strong opportunity to attack the market and start to develop a team that is capable of getting back to winning trophies and getting into Europe and befitting of the world class stadium we are going to be moving into.”