David Moyes believes his Everton side were just one player away from challenging for the Premier League title.
Moyes will come up against his former club when the Blues take on Sunderland at the Stadium of Light this evening.
During his 11-year spell on Merseyside, the 53-year-old transformed Everton from frequent relegation candidates into an established team in the top half of the table.
However plans to break into the Champions League qualification places fell short in a final season in charge before joining Manchester United.
But Moyes insists that a proven striker was his only missing link in Everton’s ambition to vie for English football’s top honour.
He said: “We had a great team at Everton but we were missing a centre-forward.
“I might be exaggerating, but I think with that we would have been close to winning the Premier League, we were that good.
“In the last two years, we finished above Liverpool in the league. You look at their spending over the years and that was a big thing.
“But we just couldn’t break the top four because we didn’t have the finances to buy a centre-forward.”