David Moyes has backed Thierno Barry's potential to succeed in the Premier League. The French striker has had a difficult start to life at Everton, scoring just three goals since signing from Villarreal for £27m this summer.
Barry had to wait until the first week of December to find the back of the net for the first time in a royal blue shirt, scoring in the side’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
He scored in the return fixture against Sean Dyche’s side while also grabbing a late goal in the 4-2 loss to Brentford at home.
The French U21 international was one of the first signings of a busy summer rebuild for the Blues. While Barry was first identified as a target by former director of football Kevin Thelwell, Moyes confirmed that the move was executed by the new recruitment team led by chief executive Angus Kinnear.
“It came from us. I think we paid £27m, and to be fair, that is not a lot of money for a centre forward. We had to go early on a young centre forward if we were going to get one,” said Moyes.
“We didn’t have £50m-£60m to buy a centre forward and we probably couldn’t have got one at that price because those ones probably wouldn’t have come to the club with us having no European football.
“We had to go early and we went for Thierno, who had scored 14 or 15 goals in his first year in La Liga. If we had waited until the second year and he had done the same, then we probably would have found he wouldn’t have come to us or we couldn’t have got him at the cost he would have been.
“We need him to step up, but he’s in his first year in the Premier League from overseas, so there is a bit of room to give him a wee bit of manoeuvre. Hopefully, it will improve.”
Beto’s struggles in front of goal have exacerbated the lack of goal threat from Barry. The Guinea-Bissau international, who took the Everton number 9 shirt over the summer, scored eight goals in the league last season, but has only scored thrice in all competitions so far this campaign.
Barry has shown signs of improvement and his link-up play, aerial duels, and first touch are better than Beto's. However, there’s plenty of room to grow physically and Barry also needs to develop a clinical edge inside the box.
He’s certainly raw in many regards and Moyes accepts that Everton wanted to get a promising striker who would improve into the finished article with time.
“We brought him here thinking that because he’s got a physicality, he’s good in the air, he can run plenty, he helps us off the ball and his goals last year certainly looked good enough to say that he’s going to continue that,” he added.
“And being young, a French U21s international who was involved in their Euros last summer, there are a lot of good things about him in terms of potential.
“In this position as a manager, sometimes these are the decisions you have to take. Some of them are a little bit of a gamble and while we’ve not got the big funds, we are probably in a position where that’s what we have to do. We are having to take a bit of a risk with quite a few players.”
Reader Comments (16)
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2 Posted 17/01/2026 at 18:41:02
How long do you have to wait to see this ''potential''???
You had many already established strikers during your first term and many flopped.
Other teams bring in no-names and they start scoring for fun, like Brentford's Thiago.
Sadly, there are only a couple of teams who have scored less than Everton this season so far -- and our goal drought will likely continue tomorrow at Villa Park.
3 Posted 17/01/2026 at 19:09:04
Some transfers work, others don't. Yes, we took a punt on Barry. We also took a punt on Garner, Branthwaite and a winger who'd failed at Sheffield United.
The "glass half-empty" brigade really piss me off.
4 Posted 17/01/2026 at 19:35:32
Signed in the summer by Arsenal and so far 19 matches and 1 goal from open play in the last 15 with a team top of the table. You would have thought he would have had a hatful by now.
Who was the idiot who signed Barry? We should have signed Gyokeres a few years ago, as so many on here clamoured for us to do.
5 Posted 17/01/2026 at 19:44:23
Barry was bought to lead the fucking line in the Premier League, 1 of only 20 spots available in the world. (Assuming teams play 1 up top).
We signed him to fill a massive void, so one would assume we did due diligence? How wrong we were...
6 Posted 18/01/2026 at 04:45:48
Some education for you Martin, not least that making things up to try to deceive people is BAD Martin.
This would be Ndiaye who scored 21 goals in 77 games for the Blades (not bad for a 'failed' winger eh Martin?). The same Ndiaye who still today is a hallowed name for fans of the Blades. And the same Ndiaye who one of the most respected posters on here with extremely strong ties to living and breathing Blades fans - Peter Mills - reminds us that Ndiaye was the opposite of 'failure' at Bramall Lane.
Q. In a similar vein to us, didn't Wednesday first play at Bramall Lane?
I hope that you learn from this experience Martin.
7 Posted 18/01/2026 at 04:53:41
8 Posted 18/01/2026 at 10:10:20
It seems this line of thinking still stand in the professional ranks. But then we all know better because he's shit during matches.
Isn't that the point though - he has potential and we're all judging him on the here & now? Everton have their hands tied when it comes to signings, especially strikers.
10 Posted 18/01/2026 at 16:50:37
11 Posted 18/01/2026 at 19:05:21
Thierno. Most on here think you are rubbish and a complete waste of money and you have now scored 4 goals in 8 matches. That is 20 goals a season rate and Everton don't do 20 goals a season strikers, at least not since Lukaku, Yakubu, Lineker and Latchford. Can you please stop it. You are making our lives a misery and giving us the problem of who we can target next for our criticism.
12 Posted 18/01/2026 at 19:12:34
Nice finish off Barry
13 Posted 18/01/2026 at 20:48:42
14 Posted 19/01/2026 at 03:37:15
And we still don't Phil. Do the maths, Four goals in 22 (18.18%). No need to go overboard Phil. Remember Beto's Indian Summer?
Shall we see how things work out before we do this 20 goals stuff. Right now he's on course for 7 or 8. The other fella bigging up Barry was bigging up Beto this time last year.
15 Posted 19/01/2026 at 06:01:31
When Moyes promoted Beto to the starting eleven over Calvert-Lewin, one year ago next week, I specifically predicted he'd pass Calvert-Lewin's season goals total (then sitting at 3) within 8 games.
Beto promptly scored 5 in his first 5 starts. He was crucial to turning our season around at that point.
The reminder of that accurate prediction is much appreciated.
16 Posted 19/01/2026 at 06:22:22
I didn't know there was one.
17 Posted 19/01/2026 at 06:55:30
He"s far from the finished article. He rarely shoots, but his last 10 games are a significant improvement on his first 10.
Regular starts from the manager and training are turning the kid around. Long way to go yet, but it was looking very difficult when he first arrived.
He is a big lad, and when he fills out, he is going to be a handful.
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1 Posted 17/01/2026 at 18:04:14
Why not just play Sherif or keep Ellis Simms or Tom Cannon if we are just going to take £30M risks from France???