Everton transfer stance on Beto as David Moyes explains chat with striker
David Moyes speaks after Everton's Premier League clash with Fulham at Craven Cottage
David Moyes heaped praise on Beto after the striker scored his tenth goal of the season. The 27-year-old had tears in his eyes after his stoppage time equaliser against the same side earlier this season.
It did not prove to be a breakthrough in his campaign as he continued to struggle for minutes under Sean Dyche.
The arrival of Moyes in January however, combined with an injury crisis up front, rejuvenated his Blues career and it his goals that pulled Everton away from what threatened to be another chastening survival fight.
He has continued to score too - his first-time effort at Craven Cottage following his header against Ipswich Town last weekend.
Those goals mean only Mo Salah, Alexander Isak and Jean-Philippe Mateta have scored more goals in the Premier League since Moyes’ return to Everton. This was Beto’s seventh in that time, his eighth in the league overall.
Speaking after his heroics in west London, Moyes highlighted the Guinea-Bissau international’s importance at the end of a week in which it was claimed newly promoted Leeds United were intent on taking him to Elland Road.
Beto holds value for Everton and Moyes, having initially been unconvinced, is well aware of what his goals have meant for the Blues' season.
He has ambitions to overhaul the forward department and no-one's position is certain.
But the sale of Beto would be a move Everton would be unlikely to countenance - certainly at this stage of the summer - given how important he has been and how difficult his goals may be to replace. It is even more unlikely Moyes would be willing to lose him to a potential rival next season.
Moyes said: “He's a great boy, I've got to say. He practises like you can't believe to try and get better, which when you've got that, you know then you've got something - he's trying to get better.
“He's incredibly humble. He is very honest with himself, which gives a manager a great chance to try to improve you.
"So I have to say he's doing great. He's got eight Premier League goals.
“I sort of said to him a couple of weeks ago, I said, ‘look, you might try and get 10’.
“If you think that he has not really played that much, he's only really come on the scene in January, so if he could get another two between now and the end of the season, it would have been a great run of goals for him in the second half of the season.”