EVERTON FC will continue to monitor young Greek defender Kostas Manolas after confirming talks have taken place with his representatives.

The 20-year-old AEK Athens centre-half has emerged as a potential target for Everton FF manager David Moyes who looks to bolster their painfully thin options at the back.

Moyes, who expects to have at least some of the money raised from Diniyar Bilyaletdinov's imminent move to Spartak Moscow at his disposal in the transfer window, is also scouring the market for a striker but has revealed the club are unlikely to offer a contract to trialist Edson Buddle.

Other than the potential seen in Manolas, Moyes admits there is nothing else in the "pipeline" ahead of Tuesday's transfer deadline and with Everton hosting Manchester City on that night, the manager has effectively one less day to complete any deals.

Moyes says he will keep tabs on Manolas, who is reported to have a £3m buy out clause in his contract, and though the player is of interest the Everton manager admits to having some reservations.

“He’s (Manolas) a boy we’ve been looking at for a wee while,” said Moyes.

“We know a bit about him. He’s a young centre back, and we need a centre back but what we could probably do with is one who can go straight into the team just now and this boy probably couldn’t do that. But he’s got potential.

“His representatives have been in and we’ve spoken to the club, so we’ve done that, but we’ve not taken it any further at this present time.”

On Bilyaletdinov’s proposed £5.5m move back to Russia, Moyes added: "Bily wanted to move and we were more than comfortable with that.

“Obviously it frees me up some of the cash from that. I wouldn’t say we’ve got anything in the pipeline. We’ve enquired about a few players but I wouldn’t say there’s anything too positive from that just now. We’re looking at a few things. I didn’t know anything about Bily’s move until probably Monday.”