David Moyes admits Everton are getting ‘desperate’ for further additions.
Bayern Munich left-back Adam Aznou became the club’s fourth summer signing on Tuesday following the arrivals of Charly Alcaraz, Thierno Barry and Mark Travers.
But the Blues have been frustrated in the market by missing out on several targets including Lyon’s Malick Fofana, Tyler Dibling at Southampton and Takefusa Kubo of Real Sociedad.
And Moyes, who set a benchmark of nine or ten additions, concedes is reaching a critical stage with just over a fortnight before their Premier League campaign starts.
He said: “The truth is we’re not getting deals over the line at the moment.
“That’s a fact, we’re not getting a lot of the deals done which we’re hoping to do.
“We keep trying to get the best players we can, we want to challenge ourselves to get good players if possible, we’re trying to do that, but we’re finding it quite difficult at the moment.
“I’m telling it straight at the moment. We want to get it done, we’re desperate to get things moving on.
“We know that time’s running out because it won’t be long until the window starts to become a bit close to the end.”