Beto provides a four-word verdict on a possible Everton leave as transfer talk intensifies.

The Everton forward stated that his focus is only on competing for a starting berth when the new season begins. Everton striker Beto has stated that he is focusing his attention on Everton and the battle to become the club’s main striker. This summer, doubts over the forward’s future arose as Serie A expressed interest in his services. However, the 26-year-old is just concerned with one thing. Speaking at the club’s pre-season training camp in Ireland, he simply told the ECHO, “My focus is on Everton.”

Beto’s comments came at the end of a productive week with his colleagues. Two days of double training sessions strained the players, but there was plenty of football in between the conditioning routines. The former Udinese player has impressed throughout those workouts, both in small-sided games and 11-a-side fights, garnering manager Sean Dyche’s plaudits before his second-half performance in the draw against Sligo Rovers.

While his early pre-season performances have been well received inside the camp, curiosity about his future has continued – and subsequently grown – with reports suggesting Bologna is considering him as a potential replacement for Joshua Zirkzee, who signed with Manchester United earlier this week. When asked about the reports, Beto stated that his focus was only on Everton and improving on his Premier League debut, which he found difficult but is motivated to develop on. As part of that, he has set his sights on competing with his teammates, especially Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Youssef Chermiti, knowing that there will be little time for rest if he is to obtain the minutes and opportunities he seeks.

Speaking to the ECHO during the club’s training camp in Ireland this week, he said: “Dom, Chermiti, I know I’ll have to compete with them. It’s impossible that I believe I’m the best option. I want to be the number one option. But I know that if I’m the number one option and perform well in one game, but then don’t score in the next, someone else will have a shot. As a striker, it’s like this. So the first game against Brighton is ‘if’ I play.

The competition begins on the training day. If they score, I will need to come in and score. It’s like this. Because if they score but I don’t, I’m in trouble. And if I score while they don’t, they’re in trouble. So it is like this for me. It’s impossible to imagine I won’t face competition.”