Everton chairman Bill Kenwright says they cannot make new signings because their lending bank won't allow them.
The club's supremo lays the finger of blame in the direction of their bank, who have clamped down on lending in the wake of the recession.
"Two things, one the world is in a recession and I don't know any business that isn't suffering at the moment and I include football in that, other than the financial elite," he told Sky Sports News.
"Two, we've come to a stage with our bank with our finance where we just can't borrow any more. You've been at the AGMs, EGMs, the shareholders' meeting when I've said year after year, what we do is we beg and borrow from the bank. That's what we've been doing.
"The banks are tightening in now. We just can't borrow any more money. A, to protect the football club and B, to protect the fans. I know the progress over the past decade has been phenomenal on and off the pitch.
"We knew this summer we were going to get to a point where things were going to get very, very tight. We knew we had to trade. There has not been a lot of trading in football itself this summer. We've not been able to trade yet and that's the reason that we've not bought in a new player."
