Villa loan preferable, says Moyes

Everton manager David Moyes said he would welcome Barcelona’s David Villa, if the striker was interested in joining the club on loan.

The Toffees’ boss also made clear he expects stars such as Leighton Baines and Marouane Fellaini to stay at Goodison Park this season as he ruled out the possibility of selling any of his key players in the January transfer window.

Both Baines and Fellaini have been in superb form this Premier League campaign, which has seen them linked with moves away from Merseyside but Moyes claimed he was expecting a quiet transfer window.

“”If he (Villa) was loanable and he wanted to join Everton, we’d be more than happy to have him,” Moyes told BBC Radio.

“Last year, we sold (Diniyar) Bilyaletdinov for 5.5m pounds back to Russia and that gave us the opportunity to go and buy.

“We brought in Steven Pienaar on loan from Spurs, we bought (Nikica) Jelavic from Rangers for 5m pounds and Darron Gibson from Man Utd for 500,000 pounds. We spent the money we got in. That is the way we have tended to work.

“My intention is not to sell anyone this January.”

Everton are pushing hard for a place in the top four, and next season’s Champions League, and are only six points behind champions Manchester City in second, ahead of their hosting of Chelsea on Sunday.