Everton forward faces defining summer as David Moyes weighs up what to do

a day ago

A difficult day looked set to end in more frustration as Everton trailed Sligo Rovers 3-1. The game was a friendly, the first of pre-season and essentially a fitness test built around the return of Seamus Coleman to the club where he rose to the Blues' attention.
But defeat still would have disappointed the hundreds that had crossed Ireland to follow Sean Dyche's side.
It looked like that would be the outcome until the intervention of Youssef Chermiti. The young forward bagged two late goals to salvage a draw hours after his club had been hit with news The Friedkin Group had pulled out of their first takeover bid.
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It was a big moment for Chermiti, even if the match meant little in terms of preparations for the upcoming season.
The forward had endured a tough first season following his surprise arrival from Sporting Lisbon the previous summer. With Everton operating on a budget, splashing just over £10m on a teenage prospect felt a luxury the club may not have been able to afford at the start of the 2023/24 season.
Over that campaign he ended up caught in a tough spot. Dyche's squad was too small to allow him to leave on loan, with offers for his services made that January. But Chermiti was considered too raw for the Blues boss to use in the cut and thrust of what became another relegation fight after the club was hit with two points deductions for spending breaches. Dyche admitted it was a tough situation to wrestle.
Everton supporters did get glimpses of him and, after the pressure eased following the home wins over Nottingham Forest and Liverpool, the Portugal youth international started the home win over Brentford.
He looked good in flashes and so, when his brace turned the game around at Sligo there was a sense he was starting pre-season with the momentum he had finished the past campaign with. That feeling survived the friendly defeat at Salford City that followed. Chermiti came off the bench in that match and his nifty footwork won the free-kick from which James Garner levelled before a much-changed Blues fell away late in the game.
It therefore came as a jolt of disappointment when Dyche announced at Coventry City days later that his summer was over.
A foot injury suffered in training between the friendlies required surgery and that was Chermiti done until November. And then, as he finally neared a return, a thigh strain ruled him out for several more months.
The timing of the thigh setback was particularly cruel. In January, Armando Broja and Dominic Calvert-Lewin both suffered serious injuries. Beto was far from established and so, had Chermiti been available, there was a genuine opportunity to make an impression given how threadbare the squad was.
It was March before he made it on the pitch in front of David Moyes. It took just 11 minutes to make an impact as he played a role in Jake O'Brien's late equaliser against West Ham United.
After that cameo, he said: 'I just want to keep getting involved – keep getting minutes in the bank and try to score my first goal... hopefully at Goodison Park. That's my goal.
"I feel the love from the supporters. Every time I play here, I feel that energy and that love from the fans. It's a great feeling."
A goal at Goodison did not come - indeed, he is yet to score a senior goal for the club, though circumstances have been unkind to him.
As a result, he approaches his third season with Everton at a crossroads. The departure of Dominic Calvert-Lewin has removed one barrier to the first team.
But Beto's star rose after he took advantage of his period as the only fit forward at the club while the decision to invest £27.5m into 22-year-old forward Thierno Barry suggests Chermiti will not be guaranteed to be second choice. That means he faces the prospect of being the third choice forward in a system that will likely rely on just one.
A loan deal could be his best route to the development minutes the 21-year-old desperately needs. He did start the friendly at Acrrington Stanley on Tuesday night but his performance could be judged both ways. He forced two good saves from Accrington man of the match, goalkeeper Ollie Wright, the best an acrobatic tip over the bar after a diving Chermiti met a Tim Iroegbunam cross. Yet it was another opportunity in which he did not hit the back of the net.
More are likely to follow with Everton set to travel to Blackburn Rovers and then the USA. He will get time to make his case and, even if he was to leave on loan, there is no suggestion he does not have a future at the club - he is contracted until 2027.
The question is whether Moyes will view him as too important to a small squad to allow to leave for the first team minutes he is ready for.