Striker said ‘no’ to late Everton January transfer – Was not ‘willing to decide his fate in three hours’

Everton’s late move for Udinese striker Beto fell by the wayside as the player refused to ‘decide his fate’ in a three hour window.

That’s according to Il Messaggero Veneto, relayed by Udinese Blog, who say the lateness of the move from Everton halted the potential transfer and led Beto to saying ‘no’.

The newspaper focuses on Everton’s last minute move for the striker at the end of the January transfer window when they were desperately scrambling to add a forward to their squad.

That never happened, despite the Toffees putting forward a €25m proposal for the striker and Udinese being open to a sale.

It’s explained that while that sum was acceptable, it was Beto himself who was ‘not willing to decide his fate in three hours’. That’s a phrase attributed to the people very close to the player.

The player’s agents had spent three hours in a club in Udine trying to convince the player into the switch to Goodison Park but he was not interested and instead decided to leave talks ‘postponed’ until the summer.

That decision was made despite an ‘appreciable’ increase in wages being offered by Everton for him to make the switch.

The choice is not something Udinese are particularly happy about given the player ‘has not improved much’, at least on a technical level, since his arrival.

Thus, there are legitimate concerns over how much he will be worth in the summer, particularly as the Italian side have to turn over a percentage of a future resale to former club Portimonense.

It seems they would have been happy to sell in January if they could have but the player rejected it, refusing to decide his future in such a short space of time.