Moyes hails Jelavic impact

Everton boss David Moyes has heaped the praise on Nikica Jelvaic and believes the striker's January arrival boosted the squad.

The Croatian international joined Everton for £5million in the January transfer window and managed an impressive nine goals in 10 starts for the Blues. Moyes admits Jelavic "exceeded expectations" with his performances since his switch from the SPL and the Everton boss believes the frontman also brought out the best in his team-mates. He told the club's official website: "What Jelavic did was make every player about 10 per cent better. "Every one of them knew they could play the ball into the box and we would have a chance of scoring. They could use him to link up and he gave us a great lift." The Scot admits that he was unsure on whether or not to sign Jelavic but coach David Weir, who played alongside the forward at Rangers, convinced him to make a move for the 26-year-old. Moyes feels Jelavic's value has now risen way beyond the £5million Everton forked out to secure his services from Rangers, but insists he has no plans to cash in on the Croatian frontman. He added: "I watched him twice for Rangers against Celtic and wasn't entirely sure, he hadn't played that well in the games. "But I brought David Weir back into the club and he kept talking to me about him and in the end we rustled up the cash. "It was about £5m after (Diniyar) Bilyaletdinov went back to Russia, and I have to say he has been great. He is what Everton needed - we really needed a centre forward. "He has exceeded expectations. You buy someone like that and what could you sell him for? I assure you we are not going to do that but if we did then it would give us a great turnaround."