Rafa Benitez eyes three more signings in January

Rafa Benitez wants “two or three” new signings in the January transfer window but admits Everton will again have to be “careful” in the market.

Benitez was very limited in his spending over the summer, although the signing of leading scorer Demarai Gray from Bayer Leverkusen has proved to be a masterstroke at just £1.7m while Andros Townsend and Salomon Rondon came in on free transfers.

However, with injuries proving troublesome over the first half of the season, especially up front where England striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin has only played in three games, Benitez’s side enter 2022 in a lowly 15th and in need of further fresh blood.

Everton will play for the first time since December 16 on Sunday, when they take on Brighton at Goodison with Calvert-Lewin potentially returning to the squad, and then Benitez can turn his attention to adding to his squad

The Toffees have been widely linked to Dynamo Kiev left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko to fill a position which has proved troublesome in the extended non-injury related absence of Lucas Digne.

Benitez said: “We are working hard. We are trying to find some targets to improve the team. Everybody knows how difficult January is.

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“Everybody is a little bit worried about Covid, no-one wants to spend too much money. That is complicated. I am quite confident we will do two or three things.

“We are in contact with clubs but it’s not just me  the board are (also) looking for the right options.

“Not everybody has a lot of money to spend so we have to be careful when we buy, sell or loan players.

“I knew what we were looking for in August, we are working to find the right players for the present and the future.