ROBERT ELSTONE has defended Everton’s spending during the summer transfer window.

And the Goodison chief executive claims the club spent “considerably more” than the £24million they could eventually receive from the sale of Joleon Lescott to Manchester City.

Everton’s board have come under fire from some sections of the support for failing to sufficiently bankroll David Moyes’s squad strengthening.

After months of relative inaction, the Goodison manager spent heavily during the final week of the transfer window, splashing out £6.6m on signing John Heitinga from Atletico Madrid, £9m on Diniyar Bilyaletdinov from Lokomotiv Moscow and £5.5m to bring Sylvain Distin from Portsmouth.

Until that late flurry, the only arrival had been the signing of Jo from Manchester City on a season-long loan before the move of Lescott in the opposite direction last month freed funds for Moyes.

And Elstone insists that, while taking into account a significant increase in the wage bill, the board have invested £8m in new players this summer.

“We absolutely spent considerably more than the Joleon Lescott money,” said Elstone. “If I can just put that record straight, we spent the Joleon Lescott money and around £5m more in transfers.

“And we have also taken on about £3m over budget in our wage bill. Joleon’s money plus about £8m is this year’s investment in players.

“We as a board recognise that we have to continue to support David Moyes because absolutely everything we are about is about progressing up that league table.

“We squeeze our orange as hard as we possibly can and we go back and do that again. We do that as aggressively as we possibly can.”

Meanwhile, Moyes is confident Marouane Fellaini can avoid a bout of second season syndrome despite the

Belgian suffering a disappointing start to the campaign.

Fellaini, whose summer was disrupted by a debilitating virus, was dropped to the bench in Everton’s most recent game at home to Wigan Athletic.