In the space of one afternoon, the £10 million midfielder trebled his tally from the entire Premier league campaign. And, in the process, a player who – by his own admission – came within touching distance of joining Everton before sealing a move to another of England’s top-flight clubs reached a figure that only two members of Sean Dyche’s current squad can better.
That Abdoulaye Doucoure remains Everton’s top scorer with a measly six tells it’s own story. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, meanwhile, has just five to his name.
Andreas Pereira, following that impressive brace during Fulham’s 2-0 win at West Ham United on Sunday, now has as many as Everton’s £25.75 million striker Beto has managed during a largely underwhelming debut season on UK shores.
That West Ham double was his first brace in 111 Premier League appearances too. How Everton could do with one of their own players grabbing a game by the scruff of the neck like Pereira did in the capital, the one-time Toffees target producing probably his finest display in England’s top flight just one day before Sean Dyche’s side hit a new low at Stamford Bridge.
Everton nearly signed Fulham’s Andreas Pereira
“I wanted to play after COVID, I was going crazy. I was like ‘I to play in the Premier League, I wanted to show I’m good enough,” Pereira says on Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe with Five podcast.
During the summer of 2021, Everton came calling.
“I was very close to joining Everton,” Pereira adds. “And, suddenly, my father called me and said; ‘Andreas, you’ve never played in Brazil and you’re Brazilian. I was like ‘Yeah, but where do we go then?'”
The answer, it turns out, would be Flamengo. The Belgian-born midfielder spent the 2021/22 campaign in the Scarlet and Black, his performances impressive enough to earn him an eventual £10 million move to Fulham.
“The president of Flamengo jokingly called my dad and said; ‘If he wants to come, let him come!’. And I was like; ‘Yeah, let’s go to Flamengo!,” Pereira recalls. “Everyone said; ‘No, you’re crazy. You will never come back to Europe!'”
Pereira would, of course, get his chance on the other side of the Atlantic, finally putting down roots at Craven Cottage after loan spells at Lazio, Granada and Valencia and following a short-lived spell at the heart of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United midfield.
More troubles ahead for The Toffees
Everton, who missed out on another technically-gifted South American playmaker in Juventus loanee Carlos Alcaraz during the January window, may be facing up to another summer restricted by Financial Fair Play concerns.
The Toffees, hammered 6-0 by a Cole Palmer-inspired Chelsea on Monday night to tumble even further into the relegation mire, are one of a number of clubs looking to sign Ben Johnson from West Ham United.
HITC understands the versatile defender will be a free-agent in July after turning down a contract extension with The Hammers.
“It was the end of January,” says Sebastian Lopez, the agent of the Southampton-owned Alcaraz (Diario AS). “We had already asked the club (for Alcaraz) to be sold to play more, and we had some options with Nottingham Forest, with Lyon and with Marseille.
“And we were also talking to people from Everton.
“On the Sunday, before the transfer window closed, I went to London to explore all these options. And, in the middle, Juventus called me. So I went from Southampton (to Italy) and we established the exit conditions.”