After long negotiations, the Toffees signed the centre-forward in a €25m deal in the final days of the transfer window.

As TuttoUdinese today features a story about the striker, they highlight he’s been of little use for Everton lately.

Beto had only been used by the Toffees as a substitute, and wasn’t even brought into the game in their win over West Ham at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Udinese are 17th in Serie A, with only six goals, and one of those was by Beto before the move to Goodison Park. That’s why TuttoUdinese writes his ‘absence is certainly felt’.

There’s obviously a long time left in the 25-year-old’s career at Everton, as he signed a contract which runs until 2027. Still, with the local media now highlighting his lack of playing time at Everton, it wouldn’t be strange if they start talking about a loan back to Udinese in the near future should he continue to lack prominence.

Beto has scored one goal for the Toffees so far, and that was in the EFL Cup match against Doncaster Rovers.

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The Frenchman had spent three and a half years playing for Everton, who he had joined from Barcelona in 2018 in a €20m deal.

He had proven to be a key player for the Toffees following his arrival but a bad relationship with former Blues boss Rafa Benitez, meant by January 2022 he was on the way out.

He eventually received a call to join Aston Villa and has now recalled that story, revealing how Steven Gerrard made the option of going to Aston Villa sound so attractive.

“Well, actually, I was cold with my coach at Everton, with Rafa Benitez. And so, as soon as he saw that I was cold with Benitez, he called me directly,” the defender recounted.

“He got my number, I don’t know how. He called me. And he even sent me a message on Instagram. I saw the certificate. Steven Gerrard. I said, oh yeah!,”

“That’s a great anecdote. Because I said to myself, yeah, it’s coach 2.0. He sends me a DM. So, that made me smile. And so, we started talking on the phone. He said to me: ‘yeah, I absolutely want you. I don’t know if we can do it financially’. At first, he was talking to me about a loan.

“I said, ‘I’m not interested in a loan’ I have my children so I need to have a transfer to be able to settle down and have stability. And so, he said to me: ‘no, no. I absolutely want you. So, we’re going to do it’. And a week later, he called me back. He said, we’re going to do everything to recruit you. And then, three weeks later, a month later, I was there.”

Aston Villa ended up spending €30m to sign Digne from Everton in that transfer window, with him signing a contract until 2026.

So far, the fullback has made 61 appearances for the club, and continues to be an importance player for the team with Unai Emery in charge, currently with 14 games this season.

Digne isn’t the only player who seemed to have problems with Rafa Benitez at Everton, and the funny thing is that the Spanish manager ended up getting sacked just days after the player left Goodison Park to join Aston Villa.

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The Spanish coach has often taken any opportunity to do so or make spectacular claims when things aren’t going particularly well at a club, and it seems that hasn’t changed post Everton.

Benitez is currently struggling at Celta Vigo, who he joined in the summer in his first job after his sacking at Goodison Park, and is now making some impressive claims according to Cadena SER.

They cover the manager today and his latest comments about his side, who sit 18^th in La Liga with six points from ten games and just one win to their name.

The pressure has been rising on him since as they go through one of the worst starts to a season in their history and questions are naturally asked of Benitez.

He, though, appears oblivious to all of that and has insisted all is well, as his side are currently outperforming the likes of Manchester City and Brighton.

“(The team’s data) is not that of a relegation team,” he insisted.

“The problems we have, have been detected. What you have to do now is find the solutions, which may take more or less time. The data is good, we do not have data on the relegation team.

“We are ahead of Manchester City or Brighton, who were among the top 8 or 9 teams, in terms of shots on goal. That is not normal, we are the only team that is in that situation with so many shots on goal.

“That’s why we need to improve accuracy. Atlético Madrid is the first team in precision, they shoot little but score a lot of goals, and we are shooting a lot and score few goals.”

The question for Benitez and his team is whether they can turn things around and stop the situation from worsening as it did at Everton.

This tactic of ignoring the obvious and making big claims is one that’s rarely worked for Benitez, it certainly didn’t at Goodison Park, and it’s hard to imagine many Celta fans will be happy with their side creating chances and losing.

Indeed, as far as they’re concerned Celta are very much a relegation team at this moment in time and it would be surprising if these comments do anything in Benitez’s favour.

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The Magpies’ interest in the 22-year-old isn’t new, as they’ve had him on their agenda for a while.

That’s according to Belgian journalist Sacha Tavolieri, who took to X, formerly Twitter, to state that Newcastle board ‘likes’ the Everton player, and that interest has been there since January.

That’s all Tavolieri has to say, without mentioning if the midfielder is willing to leave the Toffees for the Tyneside club in the winter market, or the fee needed to take him away from Everton.

He has a contract lasting until 2027.

On Wednesday, both Gazzetta dello Sport and Sky Italia stated Newcastle summer signing Sandro Tonali could be suspended for 10 months for his involvement in the football betting scandal.

Eddie Howe is set to be without Tonali for the rest of the season and the situation would have seen the Premier League side look for several options in January, including the Everton midfielder.

The Belgium international has been a regular since he arrived at the Merseyside club in 2022 and has made 11 appearances this season.

#NewcastleUnited interest for Amadou #Onana didn’t come from yesterday. #NUFC board likes the Belgian midfielder since January 2023…. #mercato #EFC https://t.co/7hXup2rZew pic.twitter.com/n7a6K101qH

— Sacha Tavolieri (@sachatavolieri) October 25, 2023

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That’s according to SportBILD, who explain Schalke are keen to avoid losing the 17-year-old to a Bundesliga side on the cheap.

They explain that Schalke’s best player can leave the club after this season via a release clause in his contract which means Bundesliga clubs can sign the U17 international next summer for a ‘measly’ €7m.

RB Leipzig are very interested and believe they are in pole position to get the ‘super talent’, who Schalke had always been hoping to sell for a ‘hefty transfer fee’ that would transform the club.

That opportunity appears to have been missed, though, and they are now scrambling to work out a deal in January to avoid the youngster going on the cheap next year.

The belief is that Ouédraogo will be ‘almost forced’ to leave the German club as not only is the sporting situation bad for his development but they want to sell as well.

Indeed, their need to avoid losing him for €7m is clear as such a figure wouldn’t even cover the interest they are currently paying on a yearly basis on their debts.

Finding a suitor outside of Germany shouldn’t be difficult and Everton were one of the clubs recently named as keeping a close eye on them.

A report earlier this month stated they and Liverpool could do something of a Merseyside battle for him and stated he’d be available for €20m next summer as well.

It seems unlikely Everton would pay such a figure, or even be able to, but it seems anything over €7m would now been seen as a massive plus for Schalke.

Perhaps a structured deal based on various factors would work, it’s certainly something Everton have used to their advantage over the last two years amid their own financial problems.

That’s something for Kevin Thelwell and his team to look at but there is certainly a deal there to be done for Ouédraogo in January if they want it.

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For the past two years, the striker was on loan at Hannover 96 and since returning to the Bundesliga side, he’s impressed for them, managing six goals and an assist from eight league games.

This has not gone unnoticed as Bild state Everton and Brentford are in the picture for the 21-year-old.

The report says the Germany U21 international has a release clause in his current deal that expires in 2025 but the details of the clause aren’t mentioned.

Bild say the player and his agent, Maik Barthel, had a meeting with Hoffenheim managing director Alexander Rosen on Tuesday. They add the latter achieved a ‘real coup’ by agreeing with the star to renew his deal until 2027.

Everton and Brentford have looked at the frontman while Liverpool have also scouted him.

The Premier League sides hovering over Beier has seen Rosen act quickly to extend his contract, also because the current release clause makes it interesting for the likes of the Toffees and the Bees.

Bild reporter Christian Falk took to X, formerly Twitter, to add that Brentford and Everton have shown ‘concrete interest’ in Beier. The renewal would make it difficult for the Premier League sides to take him away from Hoffenheim.

True despite the concrete interest of Brentford and Everton, Maximilian Beier (21) signed a new contract at @tsghoffenheim til 2027, including a release clause. With 6 goals the striker is in the Top5 of Bundesliga. Also Liverpool scouted Beier @BILD_Sport

— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) October 24, 2023

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The Toffees were said to be strongly positioned in the race for the striker, who ended up moving to Sporting in a €32m deal.

Gyokeres has eight goals and two assists in nine appearances for the Lions so far, and that’s enough for newspaper A Bola to talk about the possibility of a move to the Premier League in the near future.

Everton, however, shouldn’t have high hopes about it, because the player is only expected to leave Sporting for a club towards the top of the Premier League.

It’s said that despite the chase from ‘mid-table’ sides in the summer, who were all turned down by Gyokeres, the striker now draws interest from ‘Premier League giants’.

That means that besides being rejected by the player once, Everton and those other clubs are now set to see an even stronger competition coming up for him.

Gyokeres used to be valued by Transfermarkt at €13m back then, and the website now has it at €32m. He’s protected by Sporting with a €100m release clause.

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The striker has been speaking to TNT Sports after bagging a goal in the 3-0 win over Chile yesterday, his latest goals in something of a purple patch for him.

He’s also been in good form for his club this season, bagging eight goals in 27 games in all competitions so far.

It’s a far cry from his time at Everton, when he managed just three goals, and one assist in 31 games for the club in a spell that most have now forgotten.

He left Goodison Park at the beginning of this year for the move to River Plate but endured a difficult first few months there, with a lack of goals and some worrying performances leading to plenty of criticism and questions over why he was brought in.

Nobody is asking those questions at this moment in time as he continues to find the back of the net, and he’s admitted he’s revelling in the applause, particularly after that Everton spell.

“I spent seven or eight difficult months in Argentina. For those who know me, I am a person who never gives up, I did not give up…I knew the criticism, I knew the demands of what River represented,” he said.

“I knew that going to River I could continue competing in the National Team because the Argentine championship is very complicated.

“I suffered a lot personally…I leave that for me obviously. I am a person who does not give up so easily.”

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The information is brought by Sky Deutschland journalist Florian Plettenberg, who brings interesting news about this chase.

He claims that Liverpool and ‘especially Jurgen Klopp’ have been monitoring Ouédraogo at the Bundesliga 2 side. But they have competition from Everton, who also want to bring him to the Premier League.

There’s an attractive factor for those clubs, which is a release clause the midfielder has at Schalke 04. It’s said that next summer, he can be bought for only €20m.

Ouédraogo was promoted to the club’s first team this summer, and already has nine appearances for them, even scoring a goal on his debut.

The youngster had already been linked to a Premier League move last week, when Brighton & Hove Albion were first said to be interested in him. So that’s something Everton and Liverpool should watch out for.

Plettenberg highlights what a ‘versatile midfielder’ Ouédraogo is, and he must be impressing the scouts to draw such early attention from Premier League clubs.

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The midfielder has made nine appearances for the national team and has already received three yellow cards and one red card so far.

Anderlecht defender Jan Vertonghen has asked the Everton player not to drop the aggressiveness from his game, and his quotes are relayed by De Standaard.

“Onana sometimes has to be a bit smarter and try to take fewer cards, but he’s very important for our game. We really need his aggressiveness; he must not lose that aspect. You have to ask the coach about the other work points,” he said.

The Belgium international arrived at the Merseyside club from Lille in 2022 and has picked up 10 yellow cards from 45 games for the Toffees.

Despite receiving several warnings and a sending off while with Belgium, Domenico Tedesco has urged the Everton star to not change his game. In fact, the national team manager believes Onana was unlucky to be sent off against Austria.

“Amadou Onana is an aggressive number 6 and that’s exactly what we need. I’m not going to ask him to change his approach. If I tell you not to think about a pink elephant, you will think about it. It’s the same if I tell him not to take a yellow card,” Tedesco explained, as relayed by RTBF.

“He risks changing his behaviour, perhaps he will do a little less. He’s young, he can learn to play despite a yellow card. On his second card, he was unlucky. He plays the ball and then touches the opponent’s foot.”

Onana’s absence for Belgium today will allow him to get extra rest ahead of Everton’s upcoming clash against Liverpool on Saturday.

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