Everton endured a frustratingly quiet month in the January transfer window, as they failed to complete a single first-team signing to bolster the squad.
The Toffees, who are currently 18th in the Premier League and facing the real possibility of relegation to the Championship, did not secure any reinforcements outside of recalling 22-year-old striker Ellis Simms from his loan spell with Sunderland in the second tier.
This means that Sean Dyche will need to do his best to get more out of the current crop of players in the squad, whose performances under Frank Lampard have left the club in such a perilous position in the table.
Everton have not always been disappointing in the transfer market over the years, and their former manager David Moyes – now of West Ham United – was able to pick up some gems over the years during his time at Goodison Park.
One player with whom the Scot played a blinder was attacking midfielder Steven Naismith, who ended up being a terrific signing for the club.
How did Steven Naismith get on at Everton?
The now-59-year-old swooped to snap up the Scotland international on a free transfer from Glasgow Rangers in 2012 and hailed him at the time of the move, saying of Naismith: “He will be an excellent addition to the players we already have and we look forward to him being fit and ready to play at the start of the season.
“He is an established international who can play in a number of positions. He has a flexibility we always like in our players and which will hopefully prove to be very useful for us.”
The forward had scored 33 goals in 132 matches for the Scottish giants prior to his move to Goodison Park and was able to continue his trend of chipping in with goals from a number ten, or second striker, position on Merseyside.
Naismith, who was once dubbed a “nuisance” to defenders by former Rangers boss Ally McCoist, scored four goals in 31 Premier League appearances during his debut campaign with Everton before bursting into life in the 2013/14 season.
The Scottish marksman plundered 39 matches in 2014/15.
In total, the Scotsman produced 38 goals and assists in 123 matches for Everton, and these statistics show that he was an excellent option for the club over the course of several seasons, chipping in with goal contributions on a semi-regular basis.
His form for the Toffees also convinced fellow Premier League side Norwich City to splash out a whopping £8.5m to sign him in January 2016, which meant that the Merseyside club made a gigantic profit on the attacker after getting three-and-a-half years of great service.
Therefore, despite leaving Goodison Park in 2013, Moyes played a blinder from both a financial and footballing perspective by moving to sign the goalscoring talent from Rangers a year previously.