Everton's Director of Football Marcel Brands has revealed he doesn't expect the club to make signings during the January transfer window - as reported by The Liverpool Echo.

The Toffees are only outside the Premier League's top four on goal difference but it appears Carlo Ancelotti is unlikely to receive mid-season enforcements in a bid to push his side over the line and qualify for the Champions League. 

Indeed, Brands was speaking at Everton's General Meeting on Thursday night and made it clear to those in attendance that the focus this month is more on trimming the fat within the Goodison ranks. 

As quoted by The Echo, he said: "We are still working to offload some players for new challenges in their careers.

"We don't expect to sign new players in this window. In previous years we only signed youngster Jarrad Branthwaite, from Carlisle, in the January window."

While Brands didn't name any individual players, the regional newspaper claims that Bernard, Jonjoe Kenny and Cenk Tosun are all available to potential suitors this month.

The Toffees are also allegedly hoping to find new clubs for Mo Besic and Yannick Bolasie.

GIVEMESPORT's Christy Malyan says...

Everton are said to have a bigger wage bill than five of the eleven clubs that finished above them in the Premier League last season and while that was undoubtedly an underachieving campaign from the Toffees, their apparent focus on shifting the deadwood is certainly understandable. 

Bernard, for example, is their joint-top earner on £120k per-week, and yet he's only made two Premier League starts this season.

That being said, it does feel like Everton could be missing a trick here in not taking advantage of the momentum they've built.

Of course, there's a danger in disrupting a squad that's performing well. But with Carlo Ancelotti at the helm and James Rodriguez representing a high-profile coup in the summer, the potential is there to make another big signing this month. 

Everton's squad is by no means perfect - they failed to win a game during Richarlison's three-game suspension, for example - so perhaps Brands should be thinking a little more opportunistically right now. 

With the list of players whose contracts are expiring this summer including Memphis Depay, Hakan Calhanoglu and Elseid Hysaj to name a few, there are options worth exploring - even if we have previously outlined the risk in constantly targeting players from major European clubs.

Then again, Brands would be incredibly foolish to publicly admit Everton are in the market for new players, especially at this time of year - that's one sure-fire way to get selling clubs to demand massive fees from the Toffees!