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Roberto Martinez: Everton have no need to buy Samuel Eto'o replacement

Roberto Martinez
Image: Roberto Martinez: Back from warm-weather training break in Qatar

Roberto Martinez is confident Everton already have enough cover in their squad to deal with the loss of Samuel Eto'o.

Eto'o's spell with Everton ended this week when he joined Sampdoria on a free transfer after just five months on Merseyside.

But the former Cameroon striker's exit will not necessarily mean a new arrival at Goodison Park this month, according to Martinez, who has Arouna Kone back after more than a year out.

"Kone is fully fit and ready to give a lot to the team, and I don't feel we need anyone to replace Samuel in that position," the Everton manager said.

"Obviously we have players who have been performing in that No 10 position, the likes of Ross Barkley and Steven Naismith, so I feel we are strong in that department."

I still feel the work is to try to get the players back in their confident mood. We haven't lost any of the talent we had last season.
Roberto Martinez

Martinez has just five days to strengthen his squad, but his focus is on restoring confidence to a group of players who challenged for a Champions League place last season but have won just once since November.

"It's hard to tell (if we will do any business)," he said. "I think we're not looking at this window to try to find solutions. All the work we did in the summer was to have a strong enough squad to face all the competitions.

"I still feel the work is to try to get the players back in their confident mood. We haven't lost any of the talent we had last season, and the work is to try to recover that. I feel we've got a very strong squad looking ahead to the second half of the season,"

In the short term Martinez hopes to have midfielder James McCarthy available for the first time this year when Everton go to Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The Republic of Ireland international has been out since December 28 with a hamstring problem but worked with the squad on their warm-weather training break in Qatar.

Martinez said: "The break really helped Kevin Mirallas and James McCarthy - both have a chance of being involved on Saturday."

Mirallas was substituted with a hamstring niggle at half-time during Everton's goalless draw with West Brom earlier this month - moments after missing a penalty.

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