Big Leeds United transfer blow as £20m exit stance emerges - manager U-turns after recent form

Leeds United’s hope of an ambitious swoop for Beto has been dashed as fresh reports emerge surrounding Everton manager David Moyes’ stance on the striker.

Sky Sports reported earlier this week that Leeds had identified Beto as a possible transfer target, with a top-level No.9 one of many summer priorities as they prepare for the Premier League. Patrick Bamford is currently the only striker with English top-flight experience but has well-documented availability issues, while Championship Golden Boot winner Joel Piroe and Mateo Joseph are both untried at the level Daniel Farke’s side are entering.

Beto would provide the kind of experience Leeds need but the YEP understands any move for the 27-year-old would be difficult to pull off, given Everton’s only other senior striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin is out of contract this summer. There would also be a hesitancy from those in charge at Goodison Park - including former Whites CEO Angus Kinnear - to strengthen what they expect to be a positional rival next season.

Guinea-Bissau international Beto scored his eighth Premier League goal of the season in a 3-1 win at Fulham on Saturday, pulling clear of teammate Iliman Ndiaye as Everton’s top goalscorer, and the Liverpool Echo have now explored his future on Merseyside. The fresh report states that while Moyes had ‘initially been unconvinced’ when arriving as manager in January, the tide appears to have changed.

“He's a great boy, I've got to say,” Moyes said of Beto following Saturday’s win at Craven Cottage. “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.”

The Liverpool Echo explain how Beto ‘holds value’ for Moyes, having scored a raft of important goals as Everton pulled away from relegation trouble under their new manager. The report adds that while an overhaul in forward positions is expected with no-one’s future certain, the sale of their top-scorer to a future rival is unlikely at this stage.

That echoes the YEP’s understanding from earlier this week, with an insider indicating a move would only become possible later in the window, if Everton tie Calvert-Lewin down to a new contract while also bringing in another No.9. Beto only joined the Toffees in a £20m deal from Udinese in 2023 and will have two years left on his contract come summer, meaning any deal would not come cheap.

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