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Roberto Martinez is ready to go on the offensive at Everton FC by targeting three new attacking signings.

And the Blues boss is ready to once again dip into the loan market in a bid to strengthen his squad ahead of the new season.

Everton have made a relatively low-key start to the summer, with Gareth Barry’s arrival on a permanent basis the only significant piece of transfer business at Goodison so far.

They remain keen on Muhamed Besic, the Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ferencvaros midfielder, though a deal to bring the 21-year-old World Cup star to Merseyside is yet to be finalised, with talks ongoing between the two clubs.

Perhaps more pressing, though, is Martinez’s desire to add to his forward options before the Premier League season gets underway.

Everton begin their campaign away to newly-promoted Leicester City in just four weeks’ time.

The departures of loanees Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku, who scored 20 goals between them last season, has left a hole which needs filling.

At present, Martinez’s only recognised senior strikers are Arouna Kone, who missed the bulk of last season with a knee injury, and Steven Naismith, with Kevin Mirallas, a winger, able to deputise on occasion, and a clutch of players hoping to emerge from the club’s U21 set-up.

“We want to bring in three attacking players,” Martinez told the ECHO. “We feel that we are OK in terms of goalkeeper and defence, but we definitely want one midfielder and three attackers.”

The loss of Lukaku, in particular, will be keenly felt.

The Chelsea man was top scorer with 16 goals in all competitions last season, and was badly missed when sidelined with an ankle injury during the second half of the campaign.

Everton have not yet given up hope of bringing the 21-year-old back to the club, but Martinez believes his team are capable of replacing the Belgian’s goals in any case.

He said: “What excites me is that with the way this team plays, we are capable of getting goals from all over the pitch. We don’t need to rely on just one player.

“That’s a good thing, because if you just rely on one player, or even two players, then you can easily become predictable, and we don’t think we are a predictable team.

“Continuity is key for us this summer. Last season was about establishing a way of playing, and getting everyone on board with that.

“Now we have to kick on. We don’t want to lose that.

“That is why it was so important to bring Gareth Barry in, and to get new contracts to the likes of Seamus Coleman and Tony Hibbert. They are important to us in that regard.

“At the moment, I look around and I feel that it will be very difficult to improve upon what we have in the squad, in terms of quality.

“That’s a real positive thing, because it shows that our standard of competition is very good.

“We need to be very careful that any player that is considered to come in is the right fit, in terms of character as much as technical or tactical ability. The players here have a special bond, which carries them through, and any new player coming in needs to be able to fit into that.

“Ultimately, it is about making right decisions, as it is in any transfer window. You have to plan for the summer well in advance, and we are very happy with the work we have put in since January in preparing for this summer.

“We’ve worked hard to identify the type of players we want, and we are confident we will be in a good position to strengthen our squad before the end of this window.”

Martinez cites the last day of last summer’s window as a key moment in his first season on Merseyside. Everton signed James McCarthy from Wigan, and brought in both Barry and Lukaku on loan, on a manic day at Finch Farm.

Ideally, the manager would prefer to have his business done a little earlier this time around, though he has reiterated that he is willing to once more utilise the loan market.

“Our use of the loan market has been a strength in recent years,” he said. “That is something we will once again look to.

“The loan players that have left were very influential for us last season.

“But we cannot forget that we have a lot of young players already at the club as well. I have been very impressed by some of those players, and we want to have a look at them over the pre-season. Overall I’m positive where we are at.”

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