How did you rate the Cherries this season? Have your say in survey
It was a brilliant year for the club on and off the pitch - and the Daily Echo is inviting fans to have their say in a fans' survey for the end of the season.
There was silverware for the women's team as they achieved promotion and won the National League Plate, while the development squad reached the final of the Professional Development League playoffs.
For the men's first team, a record-breaking campaign saw Andoni Iraola's side earn a best-ever 56 points, with the most wins and most goals scored in a Premier League season for AFC Bournemouth.
Let us know your highlights and lowlights, as well as how you rated each of the men's players across the top flight campaign below.
The deadline for responses is this Sunday, June 8.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Guardiola wanted a smaller squad. Instead it's grown. How can Man City trim it?
It has been 73 days since Pep Guardiola said he would quit Manchester City if he did not have a smaller squad next season. That was in May, after a comfortable win at home against Bournemouth, when his lip quivered after committing what he views as the heinous act of leaving four senior players festering at home. Advertisement Joking or not, he might have to leave a dozen at home for the opening match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two weeks out from the start of the new Premier League season, the mission to condense the squad still needs work. Rather than trim, City have made a net addition of two first-team players this summer. Sometimes, taking two steps forward and one step back is the way to progress. That is certainly how City will view it, having acted rapidly to acquire their main targets before the Club World Cup. Buying before selling has the benefit that other clubs cannot hold them to ransom, knowing there is money burning a hole in their pocket. But signing James Trafford, Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki means Guardiola has 31 players. While there has been a conscious effort to reduce the squad's average age and wage bill, it is an expensive squad to run, with several players surplus to requirements and others seemingly having little chance of regular minutes. Here is The Athletic's assessment of the situation… City had the luxury of two leading men for part of this summer. New sporting director Hugo Viana, almost four months into his role since joining from Sporting CP, was being supported by director of football Txiki Begiristain as part of a transition, but he ended his 13-year spell this week. Viana will continue to be aided by Carlos Raphael Moersen, who is director of football transactions at City Football Group (CFG, the club's overarching owner) and has been helping lead some negotiations with prospective buyers this summer. City have brought in some money — Kyle Walker has moved to Burnley for a fee that could reach £5million ($6.6m), Maximo Perrone's switch to Como is worth €15million (£13m; $17m) and €24m has arrived after Yan Couto's loan deal at Borussia Dortmund was made permanent. Advertisement But to get numbers down, established players will have to leave soon. Finding permanent takers for Kalvin Phillips, given the financial package of a fee plus wages, has been tricky. Jack Grealish and James McAtee are expected to leave too. The fourth expected exit is goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, as City now have four senior goalkeepers following Trafford's arrival. City want Ederson to stay until the end of his contract next year and are open to selling Ortega, who also has a year left on his deal and wants to play regularly as he looks to break into Germany's squad for the World Cup next summer. Then there is the possibility of allowing younger players to go out on loan. Sverre Nypan, the 18-year-old who joined from Rosenborg for £12.5million, will go out on loan as part of a development plan but a prospective move to Ajax is thought to no longer be on the cards. La Liga club Girona, part of the CFG network, are keen on loaning Vitor Reis and Claudio Echeverri. A year in Spain represents a good development opportunity for Reis, who is 19 and joined the club in January from Palmeiras for £29.5million. He is highly rated internally but showed in his second start for City against Wydad at the Club World Cup that there are parts of his game that need work. Echeverri is also 19 but represents a different case. Guardiola is a huge admirer and saw fit to bring Echeverri on for his debut in the FA Cup final just months after arriving from Argentina. Girona would love to have him, while Roma have made a case for a year in Italy, but City are deliberating whether it would be better to keep him in-house to learn from the manager and other forwards such as Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush. Oscar Bobb is very likely to stay, with the 22-year-old winger impressing Guardiola last summer before a fractured leg ruined his season. Advertisement Nico O'Reilly faces a fight for minutes due to the arrival of Ait-Nouri at left-back, where he impressed last season. The plan is for O'Reilly, 20, to stay, as he can also operate in his more natural midfielder role. McAtee is more established but his role last season was largely restricted to substitute cameos. Nottingham Forest have been discussing a fee of around £25million for him but Viana wants more. Eintracht Frankfurt, who McAtee visited last month, view these sums as out of their league. In defence, City are overstocked, with 10 players across the back four, leading to speculation that one or two could depart. John Stones was not given a single minute at the Club World Cup despite fully recovering from an injury-ravaged season. The England centre-back, who has a year left on his deal, said during the Club World Cup that he did not want to leave and there is no prospect of him departing this summer. Manuel Akanji and Abdukodir Khusanov are two others with a point to prove. Khusanov, 21, barely featured in the final few months of the season after joining from Nice in January, but no approaches have been made. In midfield, there is an argument that City are also overstocked. It remains to be seen how quickly Rodri can regain form after his anterior cruciate ligament injury, so the cover provided by Nico Gonzalez and Mateo Kovacic could be important. Tijjani Reijnders can also drop back to play as the deeper No 6. Premier League clubs will have to register their official 25-man squad after the transfer window closes on September 1. They can only name a maximum of 17 non-homegrown senior players, with the rest of the squad comprising 'homegrown players' — those who have trained at an English club for three seasons (or 36) months between the ages of 15 and 21, regardless of nationality. Advertisement City have 17 non-homegrown players above the age of 21 and nine homegrown players above the age of 21. That is only one too many, a situation aided by the Premier League rule that dictates under-21 players, those born after January 1, 2004, do not take up spaces in the 25-man squad. Rico Lewis, Khusanov, Reis, O'Reilly, Savinho and Echeverri all fall into that category, although 22-year-old Bobb becomes a senior homegrown player for the first time. There are different rules in the Champions League, so if City do not loan or sell anyone else, they would have to leave four non-homegrown players out in the cold. UEFA's 'A list' does not offer the same blanket exclusion for under-21 players. They have to be under-21 and homegrown, which means Khusanov, Reis, Savinho and Echeverri all require a space, unlike in the Premier League. Eight spaces are exclusively reserved for locally trained players, with no more than four of that total made up of association-trained players reared at other English clubs. Even if Grealish, Phillips and McAtee all leave, that will not be an issue for City, with Trafford, O'Reilly, Lewis, Bobb and Foden all club-trained, and Betinelli, Stones and Ake all association-trained. It is another reason the two goalkeepers were recruited this summer. The risk of carrying such a bloated squad is not just regulatory, however. It is a matter of identity and contentment, too. Players at this level possess egos and pride. They want to contribute and feel like a valued member of the squad but it is difficult to achieve across an entire squad, with so many players being reduced to a spectator role. City were quick out of the blocks this window but they need to start getting a shift on if they are to satisfy Guardiola's demand for an optimised squad.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Sunderland have spent over £100m on transfers. This is how they could do it – and why they need to
It is a couple of months after earning promotion. In the north east of England, Sunderland are causing a stir. Before a return to top-flight football, they have spent big. The year is 2007. It is easily forgotten now, but Sunderland's last promotion before this one brought with it a glut of transfers. Sunderland spent £35million on new faces that summer, the fifth-highest total in the Premier League, only trailing Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Liverpool. Advertisement It seems an almost quaint figure now. To sign 21-year-old midfielder Habib Diarra this summer, Sunderland are handing over £27m ($36m). Simon Adingra, Chemsdine Talbi, Enzo Le Fee, and Noah Sadiki have all arrived for between £14m and £18m, before any future add-ons. As revealed by The Athletic on Wednesday, goalkeeper Robin Roefs is set to join for £9m, taking Sunderland's combined transfer spend beyond the £100m mark. The figure has increased following confirmation of Granit Xhaka's arrival on Wearside. Xhaka has returned to England for an initial fee of £13m, fresh from a successful stint at Bayer Leverkusen. Sunderland, just like they did all those years ago, are spending heavily in an attempt to ensure they last longer than a single season in the Premier League. The club's transfer business has raised eyebrows. Sunderland's promotion team comprised a mix of academy graduates and low-cost acquisitions — the starting XI for May's play-off final victory against Sheffield United required less than £10m to assemble. Two months on, Sunderland now have the most expensive squad in the club's history. Xhaka is the club's seventh signing in a month. Add Roefs and some assumed agent fees and transfer levies, and we land at a gross spend this summer of £130m. Sunderland are the seventh-highest-spending Premier League club this window, only trailing the traditional 'Big Six'. On a net basis, including the Roefs deal, they're this summer's eighth-highest-spending club in the world. Sunderland generated significant sales in their most recent financial year but even so, the way they have cleared club spending records is eye-catching. After accounting for sales, alongside fees spent on Wilson Isidor, Milan Aleksic and Ahmed Abdullahi since the start of their financial year last July, The Athletic estimates Sunderland's net transfer spend to be around £94m. Advertisement The spending won't stop there. New faces have primarily arrived in midfield — none of them play in central defence or up front, two positions that need strengthening. Further signings are expected before the season opener against West Ham United on August 16. Sunderland's outlay is reflective of plenty of things, but at least two obvious ones. First, the money involved in English football has never been greater; the figures clubs must reach to remain competitive grow each year. Second, Sunderland have a lot of ground to make up. Spending on transfer fees is only weakly correlated with immediate success but, as The Athletic detailed recently, sustained spending over time tends to prove rewarding on the field. Seventeen of this year's Premier League clubs were in the division last year (and the year before that), and their squads have been built up accordingly. Burnley are back in the top flight after just one year away. Leeds United spent two years out of it. Sunderland last played in the Premier League in 2017. Over a year has passed since the most recently available figures, but even taking squad cost values from the end of the 2023-24 season shows the increasing size of the gulf. Sunderland's £18.4m was around 80 times lower than league-leading Chelsea and, even more strikingly, it was only a 10th of the cost at which Burnley's squad had been assembled. Sunderland's transfer spending has paled in comparison to those they'll face this season. In 2023-24 figures, they were only middling in the Championship. In each of the past two seasons, all three promoted sides have been swiftly relegated. There are other reasons besides money for that, but it is impossible to deny that wealth, or a relative lack of it, is increasingly playing a part. On transfer fees alone, Sunderland have spent £113.6m on new players. That makes them one of only six clubs to spend over £100m in the summer following promotion, and the three who spent more than them — Nottingham Forest in 2022 (£140.4m), Aston Villa in 2019 (£134m) and Leeds (£115.2m in 2020) — all survived relegation. Ipswich spent over £100m and Southampton just under it last summer. Both went down meekly. But when money casts such a large shadow over on-field fortunes, it stands to reason that big spending will improve a survival bid's chances. In the past seven seasons, only three promoted clubs have spent less than £50m in their summer window and stayed up. Bournemouth later invested heavily in January, helping them finish 15th. Sheffield United stayed up in 2019-20 but have since been relegated (twice). Meanwhile, Brentford, ever the outlier, have long been marked out as one of the savviest clubs in England. It's possible to stay up without spending a fortune, but you'll give yourself a better chance if you do. Sunderland's spending might yet catch Forest's £140m promoted-side record, and mentions of their spending a couple of years ago immediately draw thoughts in the direction of what came next: a points deduction for breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR). Yet there's a key difference. Forest's arrival in the Premier League came on the back of 14 years in the Championship, football's equivalent of a financial black hole. Almost without exception, the longer a club stays in England's second tier, the more money they lose. In Forest's case, that amounted to pre-tax losses of £185m — £62m of those arrived during their final two seasons in the division. This meant they entered the Premier League carrying heavy existing losses on their rolling three-year PSR calculation. Advertisement Sunderland, though, were only in the Championship for three seasons before winning promotion, and spent four years of their Premier League exile in League One. They still lost money, carrying infrastructure and running costs far too large for a third-division side, but in some ways, those seasons allowed for a reset. Majority shareholder Kyril Louis-Dreyfus inherited a near-blank slate when he took over in 2021. Sunderland still lost money, but it wasn't anywhere near as much as would have been lost had they been carrying a Championship wage bill for years. Those losses amounted to £17.5m between 2022 and 2024. Seven Championship clubs lost more than that in 2023-24 alone. Sunderland can add back what the authorities deem 'good' costs in their PSR calculation. In their case, having a Category One academy means those add-backs are sizeable. Exact figures are unknown, but The Athletic estimates Sunderland's PSR result in their first two Championship seasons was profitable. Everything points to another profitable PSR year in 2024-25. Sunderland might even have made a pre-tax profit for the first time in 19 years. Through the sales of Jobe Bellingham, Jack Clarke and Tommy Watson, they've generated over £40m in player profits, to go alongside a much-improved commercial offering and higher attendances than a year ago (as well as higher ticket prices). Sunderland's operating loss (pre-player sales) was £16.9m in 2023-24, and there have been various investment programmes undertaken across the club since then. Wages, inevitably, will have risen, and 2024-25 will also bear whatever bonuses fell due as a result of promotion. Yet those player profits are hefty. Sunderland might have been profitable last season, or at the very least hovering near break-even. Moving into 2025-26, Sunderland and their fellow promoted clubs have lower loss limits than the rest of the division, and the club don't appear to have received 'secure funding' from the owners, limiting them to three-year losses of £15m. But entering the Premier League from a position of profitability stands them in better stead than most others have managed in recent years — including Leeds and Burnley this time around. Advertisement Hardly any of Sunderland's spending this summer fell into their 2024-25 accounting period (we estimate less than £2m), though the same isn't true going forward. Of the £130m gross spend, The Athletic projects £29m a year will hit Sunderland's books as amortisation costs over the next three seasons, before £24m in 2028-29 and £18m in 2029-30. In comparison, the club's 2023-24 amortisation bill was just £4m. That's without even mentioning wages. Those are unknown, but expensive signings rarely come on low salaries. Existing players are likely to have received promotion wage rises too, which means further expense. There are also around £22m in potential add-ons. Sunderland's total future costs across fees and wages may have increased by a quarter-billion pounds. If that sounds like a scary number, then it needs to be viewed alongside the opposing half of the ledger. In broadcast revenue alone, Sunderland will see a £100m increase in turnover this season. Premier League status affords the ability to earn more in other revenue streams, too. By our estimate, Sunderland's transfer activity might have added £60m in annual costs over the next couple of seasons, which is still well below the revenue uptick they'll enjoy this season. It also feels like a necessity. Just as transfer fees rise, so have wages, increasing the cost of Premier League survival. Across the last three seasons, when wage data is available, seven Premier League clubs paid less than £100m in annual salaries. Five were relegated, with only (you guessed it) Brentford the nonconformists both times. Nine-figure wage bills are increasingly important to stay in the Premier League, but Sunderland's most recent wage bill was £31.4m. Sunderland sources, kept anonymous to protect relationships, expect sales will follow. Whether Sunderland have purposely waited until a new accounting period to move out some players is unknown — with Watson and Bellingham, waiting wasn't an option — but it would make financial sense. With no compliance issues in 2024-25, sales from August onwards will hit the 2025-26 books, staying on the three-year rolling PSR calculation until the end of the 2027-28 season. The club have committed to significant future costs, so anything to offset those will be welcome. This summer has seen Sunderland ramp up their level of spending, but they've also largely continued the policy that got them promoted, with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman and head of player recruitment Stuart Harvey dramatically reducing the average age of the squad. Advertisement Since the summer of 2021, including Xhaka and Roefs, 62 players have been signed. Of those, 45 were under 24 years old. This summer, Adingra (23), Roefs (22), Diarra (21), Sadiki and Talbi (both 20) are continuing that trend. Le Fee joined on loan in January, turned 25 in February and saw his deal become permanent the moment the final whistle blew at Wembley — the first time Sunderland have spent a fee on anyone aged older than 24 since embarking upon this new strategy. Xhaka's signing is the second instance and the former Arsenal captain represents a clear departure from recent recruitment strategy. In spending £13m on the Switzerland international, which could rise to £17.3m in future add-ons are triggered, Sunderland have, for the first time under Louis-Dreyfus and company, spent a fee on a player without any clear intention of making their money back via that player's future sale. Xhaka will be almost 36 by the time his three-year contract comes to a close. Sunderland have signed older heads over the past few years but all of them have been for nothing in fees. Reinildo Mandava, the 31-year-old Mozambique international left-back who signed when his Atletico Madrid contract expired at the end of June, continued that theme. Xhaka's signing has bucked it, though it's easy to see why. He brings much-needed experience to a squad that, even with the addition of Adingra, had just 45 full Premier League games played across it — 37 of them by Adingra. If they survive relegation, Xhaka's £13m fee will seem a small price to pay in exchange for another year or more of Premier League riches. If they finish in the bottom three, the Xhaka signing will be viewed as a punt that didn't pay off. Whatever they do this summer, first-time relegation will remain a possibility, and more likely a probability. Where Xhaka and Reinildo have joined on three- and two-year deals, the rest of this summer's cohort have signed up to longer-term contracts. Whichever division Sunderland occupy in a year, they'll own young players with several years left on their contracts who, theoretically, still aren't at their peak. Advertisement That can be viewed in one of two ways. In the negative scenario, this summer's signings are flops and a relegated Sunderland are left with several expensive players they either can't shift or need to accept a loss on. Alternatively, even after relegation, they'll possess assets who can be sold to mitigate the impact of the drop. Resale value has been a key tenet of the club's transfer policy under Speakman and Harvey, and remains so even now that spending has increased. Sunderland have proven adept at understanding the transfer market in recent years, selling players at significant profits. Bellingham's June move to Borussia Dortmund is the latest such example. Even with the sell-on due to Birmingham City, his move should lead to a £20m profit. There's wider evidence that shows relegated clubs have successfully generated big money from selling their better players. Across the 12 teams relegated between 2020 and 2023, after adjusting for Burnley's later accounting date, £716m was earned from player sales in the season following demotion — an average of £60m per team. In 2023-24, Southampton, Leeds United and Leicester City generated £295m in sales between them. Last year, Burnley banked around £96m from post-relegation departures. Naturally, Sunderland believe the players they have signed are capable of performing in the Premier League. Should that prove insufficient to secure survival, they'll trust their ability to move still-young players on without too much of a hit, ensuring those hefty future costs committed to this summer don't actually materialise. The risk is they've bought poorly, but that's true of any transfer. Sunderland followed the expensive summer of 18 years ago with more spending in January. One point above the relegation zone at the turn of the year, a further £8m went on reinforcements. It proved worth it. Roy Keane's men survived, and Sunderland would stay in the Premier League for another nine years. Last weekend, coincidentally, threw up another callback. Sunderland travelled north of the border to Hearts and a testimonial for Craig Gordon, who broke the British transfer record for a goalkeeper when they paid Hearts £9million to sign him in 2007. They lost 3-0 but, perversely, it might not have been the worst thing. Advertisement Amid the excitement that has flowed since the play-off triumph two months ago, a torrent of good feeling that Xhaka's arrival has only bolstered, it is easy to forget the task that stands before Le Bris and his side. The gap between England's top two divisions, in many respects, has never been greater. Sunderland aim to bridge it by spending big, something they can do — and, everything indicates, will continue to do — albeit while trying to remain true to the strategy that got them here in the first place. It might not work. But they certainly can't be accused of not giving it a go. (Top photos: Getty Images)
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Beto interview: From playing in car parks and working at KFC to idolising Eto'o and Lukaku
Amid the swirl of delirium and chaos following Everton's 2-2 draw against Liverpool in February, one player embarked on an individual lap of honour. Beto scored the opening goal of the final Merseyside derby at Goodison Park and an upturn in form under the returning David Moyes imbued the striker with fresh confidence. Advertisement 'To tell you the truth,' says Beto, 'I had thought the derby was just (another) game. But within the club, people like Seamus (Coleman) and Tony, the kit man, were saying, 'You guys need to beat them'. 'Playing in that game, I fully understood this. I was like, 'Wow, this is really good'; the tackles, they go strong, we go strong, they give it to me and I give it to them. I love this — the battle. Now the derby is in my blood. I don't want to lose any game, but that game — I really don't want to lose it.' Undefeated in 16 of their final 19 top-flight matches under Moyes last season, Everton owed much to Beto, the 6ft 4in (193cm) forward who had toiled during his first 16 months at the club. Signed under Sean Dyche for an initial fee of £21.5million ($28.5m) in August 2023, Beto scored three Premier League goals in his first season, and he had only one to his name in his second when Moyes took over in January. The 27-year-old says he was on the brink of a move to Italy — only for an injury to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the win at Brighton on January 25 to force Everton to keep him. From there, Beto scored crucial goals against Leicester City, Liverpool, Crystal Palace and Manchester United as Everton soared to safety. The striker, who Moyes describes as 'rough and raucous', transformed himself into a cult hero. Speaking to The Athletic in a hotel lobby during Everton's pre-season tour in New York City, Beto reflects, in absorbing detail, on a life and career that has taken him from playing in car parks on the outskirts of Lisbon, via a job at fast-food chain KFC, to a striker in the most competitive league in world football. Beto grew up in the coastal municipality of Cascais, around half an hour's drive from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. He describes growing up in a 'project' neighbourhood — essentially a form of social housing. 'I liked it a lot,' he says. 'We didn't have much; we didn't have parks or football pitches, but we played two-vs-two, or three-vs-three games in car parks.' Advertisement He wanted to play locally for a club team as a child, but the costs to register stretched the family's budget. 'For Mum (Filomena), we didn't have so much money to spend on extra activities. For Mum, football was just a side activity. She preferred school, school, school.' Beto, a Guinea-Bissau international, played football at break time and realised, despite his lack of practice, that his level was higher than many of his peers. His mum relented at the age of nine and he started to play at the weekends. At home, access to the internet and satellite television was rare, meaning he watched very little football. 'One day, we were choosing the number of the jersey on my shirt and I didn't have any role model in football to refer to. 'They said, 'Oh, you're a striker, you need to wear the No 9 like Samuel Eto'o'. I said, 'I don't know (who) Eto'o (is), but, OK, I can be No 9'.' That summer, in 2009, Barcelona played the Champions League final against Man United, and Eto'o scored. 'My friend's family lived on the ground floor of my building and had television access. I was by the window outside watching the game. I saw the goal and Eto'o's celebration and thought, 'This is the guy they all told me about'. So I said, 'OK, let me follow this guy'. He became my idol.' Later, when he bought a mobile phone, he watched video compilations of Eto'o's goals. He later became inspired by players such as Didier Drogba, Romelu Lukaku and Christian Benteke. He saw in their stories, as Black players who overcame challenging upbringings, a little of himself. 'It makes you think, 'Maybe, just maybe, I can do it, too'. You never know.' Beto's beginnings in football were not conventional. He spent only one year in an elite academy before being released by Benfica at the age of 14. He then spent two years barely playing before making his start in senior football in the Portuguese amateur leagues. 'When I was at Benfica, I didn't think about being a professional. I was afraid. I could feel and always knew I was not at their level. So when they released me, I said, 'It's OK with me. I'm not as good as I thought I was'. It was a reality check. Advertisement 'I spent two years in no man's land. I was doing stupid stuff — I wasn't playing, I wasn't studying… I was thinking I don't care about the world. My mum took me out from football because I wasn't behaving well in school. 'I have one thing in my mind from Benfica. I asked one guy, 'Do you think you're going to be professional?'. He said, 'Yes, of course'. I was like, 'F*****g hell, this guy is not afraid'. He said: 'If I'm not professional here, I will be professional in another place'. I wasn't thinking like that. I was afraid to say it.' As Beto's potential career teetered, he threw himself into earning money. He worked at KFC. 'It was good. I always wanted to earn my own money. Until I was 15 or 16, I acted spoiled. I tried to have what my friends in school had and I didn't have the awareness that my mum couldn't afford things. 'My friend would say his dad paid for his driving licence, and I would go home and ask my mum for a driving licence. Now, with time, I see the things that my mum personally went through for me and my sisters. 'The first job I did was working in the woodland cutting the weeds. I did one month of work, they paid me €300. Every day, I was happy to go to work because I knew I would have my reward. I gave my mum some of it to help her pay the bills. She wanted me to go through college, but I told her I can't go. It was too boring. I just didn't have interest at all. I would go there and want to sleep. I said, 'No, this is not for me'. One thing was sure; if I was not going to college, I would not be allowed to sit at home. I needed to put money in the house.' Playing amateur football, he would work in the day and train at night, before playing games on a Sunday — his one day off. 'Every form of work is good to humble yourself,' he says, recalling the shifts at KFC. Beto played at amateur and lower-league levels for Uniao Tires and Olimpico Montijo before breaking into the top flight with Portimonense. He earned a move to Udinese in Serie A and then Everton. 'Mum gave me discipline. She and my sister educated me, so I never went to the wrong side. I remember when I told her I want to make it as a professional. For me to have even been thinking about the Premier League is just like… You are kidding! I knew the minimum salary for a professional footballer in Portugal was €1,250. No one in our family earned a thousand. I just thought if I became professional, I can help pay the bills. Advertisement 'Even in Italy, I never thought that I would go to England. But then Everton came! Everton of Lukaku! My mind was saying Lukaku played there, Eto'o played there. So if I could play in Everton, it would be a dream. I think I'm blessed.' Beto is thoughtful about his unusual football education. 'It helps me in some ways, but in some aspects of my game, I miss those basics that you learn when you are in an academy. 'It is the simplest things; passing one touch, receiving the ball, holding the ball. You learn these in professional academies because you do repetition, whereas at the smallest clubs like mine, we just go there, train, and it's less specific.' Moyes tells The Athletic that 'the modern-day centre-half wants to be no-contact, but Beto wants to do things differently — he is running in behind, he's a powerful, big boy, he's got bits about him which you wouldn't enjoy playing against'. He adds, 'A lot of managers would say they're always worried about Beto. His unpredictability for us… is certainly the same for the defenders as well.' In Italy, Beto learned from other leading strikers. 'The first time I saw aura was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. We drew 1-1, I scored and he scored. When I played against Lukaku, he recognised me. He said, 'You are playing better, keep going'. I was very happy. I said, 'Wow, I made it. These small things are really good for me'.' Beto admits to finding his start to life at Everton challenging. 'Everything was too physical,' he says. 'The intensity killed me. I wasn't playing well. I started losing confidence. Without confidence, I can't do nothing. It was a tough season, but it was good to train my mind because it was stressful. 'I was going home and looking at my videos from Italy and saying, 'But I can play football, why is it not working?'. You question yourself a lot and this is the worst part. It was a blessing, too, because I learned from that.' Advertisement Moyes says Beto's determination stands out: 'Every day we are saying, 'Come on, will you come off the training ground?'. He really is trying to improve in everything he does.' Beto says, 'I care about training. It brings me fire. If training goes not so well, I want to do extra — just to feed myself a little.' In his first season, Beto struggled with the criticism he received on social media. 'It was not easy. I used to (pay attention). If I or Everton posted a picture, I would go to the comments and they might say Beto was not good today. This is not good to read because you can be strong, but you're going to create something in your subconscious by taking all the comments in. If you care about the criticism, whether it is good or bad, it can make you shake. The ego is a difficult thing to balance.' Last summer, ahead of the new season, he worked overtime to prepare his body for the rigours of a full Premier League season. 'If I get my fitness right for the Premier League, I think I can smash everyone. This was my mindset. I trained so hard in the off-season. The beginning of the season wasn't the way I wanted. By the end, all the work that I put in paid off.' The challenge now, as Everton seek to strengthen their forward line, is to do it all over again. 'I have a goal target, but that is personal. Nobody knows it — even the manager. I want to be a better player and goalscorer than I was last season.'
