 Hello and welcome to Tofa TV. My name's Patrick Ridge. I'm here with a special guest for a bit of a special transfer show, and it's Sam Fonsecfam joined by from the All Things Alvala podcast. Sam, how are you doing and thanks for agreeing to come on and speak to us. No, thanks to him by glad to be here. Obviously there's the transfer sort of room that's been going around and also we've got the game, the friendly this weekend. So a lot of things to talk about. But yeah, thank you for inviting me and I'm sure we'll have a great one. Yeah, I'm just first things first, Sam. So you're a sporting CP fan, you've run a sporting podcast. How did that come about before we got on to the transfer and how long you've been doing that, how long has the podcast been up? So, people get confused my accent, obviously, because it's quite, quite British, but my family migrated over my dad when he was 15. And so he's half Portuguese, and my mum is half Irish, but my mum was never into football whereas my dad football mad. So that's how I grew up as a sporting fan. And he does watch English football as well, but I just can't do two clubs. I have all emotionally invested in one club. So that's how it came about. And the actual podcast elements started probably on, say, 2017, just an idea that me and another one of my friends from America actually Steff had the idea of just, you know, we were quite, might be quite a big club. We have quite a lot of foreign fans, English speaking fans, especially with like people like Ronaldo coming from the club that he's obviously got a lot of fan base in sort of Asia and Africa and some other like English speaking countries. So we were trying to sort of promote that demographic because there is quite a lot of people who don't speak Portuguese to sort of connect with sporting and obviously with cases like this as well with transfers and obviously a lot of sporting players going on to join clubs over Europe. So that gives us a good insight and gives us a profile of players. But yeah, it's been been a difficult few seasons, especially the last two, but we did win the league in 2021, which is the first in my lifetime anyway that I got to watch. So I'm hoping we can sort of get back to get back on track to that sort of success. Yeah, so as you said, they're sporting a huge club out there and definitely one of the big three in Portugal obviously and it was good to see them have such success in 2021 in the league and maybe you obviously didn't manage to replicate the last two years. So always have such, well, like you mentioned in Aldo, but such young talents are very famous academy, I suppose such a big catchment area as well obviously competing with Benficar in Lisbon. And yeah, we're on to talk about one of those academy prospects and one of those players that came out no way yesterday really, didn't it? For Bittier Romano dropped to a bombshell a bit and I think for Evertonians, it's a nice surprise to see a player that they haven't been, there haven't been a lot of links with, like the club have just missed out on signing Elbil Altori, who was from Almeria, who was a priority target, but the interest had been there for a while and it was well known and then this kind of just came out entirely out of my field. Now, I'll be honest, I mean, I'm a football journalist, a sports journalist, I never heard of him. I'll be totally honest, like I've watched as much Portuguese football as I'd like, so when I have watched it, maybe I've seen him play and it's just not ring a bell. So you do that thing, don't you? You jump on the YouTube highlights, you go on, you know, the stats pages and I work with Optus so I can get a lot of stats with him. From what I saw very quickly, it seemed well physically, he's got a lot of attributes that may be a suit to the Premier League, but technically he's definitely not the finished product and you wouldn't expect so at 19, but then I saw yourself tweeting and a few other sporting fans and just thought, yeah, it'd be good to get your opinion on him as someone who's obviously dedicated to the club and clearly an expert on it. So I'm, I would say I'm a bit of a harsh critic, because obviously, like you said, he's 19. It was his first professional season last year. I had to give a bit of backstory. What had happened is we went into last season with two registered strikers. Well, one really, which was Paulinho, who I've got the jersey behind me there, is one of my favourite sport players at the moment. But he splits opinion because, honestly, he's not going to sound stupid, but he's not a good striker. He's a good player, even though obviously he is a striker and he should be a finisher. That's not his role. So we went into the season with Paulinho as the main striker and a winger turn striker called Jovan Cabral. And what happened is Paulinho got injured in January and Jovan was injured for most of the season. So we sort of went to the panic stations. There's no striker. We didn't have any money to spend in January window. So we looked to the B team, and then we see that there's between two strikers, which is Jimmy T, of course, and Rodrigo Ribeiro. They're the next sort of two big strikers in Sporting Academy that were destined to sort of fulfil their potential and become the next sort of big stars. And everyone thought it'd be Rodrigo Ribeiro come up because he made his debut against Man City the season before, even though it was like a, we lost five in one aggregate, of course, it's still a massive step for a manager of tape to put in such a young player in that game. So all signs pointed to be Rodrigo Ribeiro. And then a lot of people were surprised when it was actually Timothy who called up because he didn't have the prolific goal scoring for the B team and he didn't seem up the finished product. Whereas Rodrigo Ribeiro obviously isn't as well. He had the, he's sort of the more sporting sort of striker that we were looking for. So what happened is that Jimmy, he had six months left in his contract. Ruben Amrym, who is our manager, said, if you sign an extension, you'll be the backup striker. We won't sign another striker and you'll be, you'll be second. So the contract was signed and I think he made his debut against Benfica away in the stadium of the Loos, which of course, big, like pushing into the deep end. He didn't score, but he had this one opportunity. The ball went through on goal. I believe it was one-one. He had a chance to make it two-one and score. And unfortunately he hit it over the bar, but due to experience everything, that's sort of, sort of what you expect. So then he sort of played a few games here and there. That started while Pauline was injured and I believe he scored three times, including one against Porto as well, which was, was very good. And even after that Porto game, the Porto manager, Sergio Contesau, went over to Chimete and just said, look, you're, you're fantastic. He played well, very well, well done. And coming from Sergio Contesau is, is quite a big compliment for such a young player. But when I say I'm harsh critic, it is because of everything in between. He doesn't have the best technical ability. His first touch is, is pretty bad. He, but he is, he is so raw and it's not his fault, obviously, because he was sort of pushed into it. But from what I've seen the last two years, especially from the academy, Nuno Mendez was 18 and became a solid left back and was great at everything. I think Guzzano and Nassio, same age, came in very good sense back even a few like years, like Mateus Nuno's technical ability from our academy, but still young age and came in, was good straight away. And it was always my opinion that I do think Chimete will be good, but I didn't want him out sporting. I wanted him to develop maybe either in like a mid table team, or just maybe in the B team. To be honest, it has come out of nowhere, but the last few weeks, there was reported interest of record, which is the sort of the number one sort of sporting was for Bournemouth and Chimete. It was going to be 20 million apparently was the, the fee that was going to take it. And then, as you said out of nowhere for Britsie Romano says that the deal in principle was agreed and it's just left to the player. So it definitely has come out of nowhere and I think Everton fans will have to be patient. He is not the finished product. He's very raw. People have compared him to Dominic Carver-Lewin before he joined and I don't have my expert knowledge on that. So that's, that's could be a good comparison, but I think Everton fans have to be patient. He's not the finished product, but he's got the potential definitely to get there. Yeah, I think, I think that's the big thing for Everton is, is that patience and I mentioned Elbil Al Torre earlier on and I think he's a player who Everton want to forwards and they want a younger one and they want a more experienced one. But I think in Elbil Al Torre, they'd have maybe got, I think he's 21, 22, they'd have got a player that has two years of experiencing one of the top five European leagues playing and scoring, not scoring tons, but playing every week, week and week out. So they'd have maybe been able to think, right, well, okay, it kind of ticks two boxes, whereas I think with Shimiti it would definitely be a case of he's coming in, you know, Everton have sold Ellie Sims this summer and rightly so he's gone to Coventry and really I think he's the comparable situation, the probably comparable level of player as well in their own rights and he's one of those that. But even with that transfer to Coventry, sorry to interrupt, it was like so your craze went from Coventry to Sporting, Sims has gone from Everton Sport and then Chimiti has gone to Everton. So is that big transfer triangle, the domino effect, which is quite interesting to see. It is, it is. And it's one of those that maybe in an ideal world Everton have been able to pay the 15 million and then say we'll loan him out to that, you know, we'll loan him out to the championship or we'll even leave him at sporting for you and see how he develops. I guess it's needs must for Everton and the need of forward in and I think from the reported package it's about 15 million euros in terms of an initial fee. And I imagine the down payment will be pretty small, which is crucial for Everton's finances. It's made one of those. Let's get him in now and at least we've got a player there, but I would hope from what I've seen that he's definitely not the only one to come in. So what you've said there definitely backs that up. Just in terms of his, you've said there you're harsh, great, great. In terms of his physicality and his size and his stature, you know, I've read that his stats look pretty decent in the air, but you know, not expecting the world of him. Do you think he's a fit for the Premier League or a shawndy system and a more direct approach? Maybe not right now, but do you think he has the attributes to at least like take those boxes in a few years down the line and then the rest of it is about nurturing his technical ability really? Yeah, most definitely. I mean, we've shawndythed to receive players like Chris Wood, for example, be like a mainstay and Ashley Barnes, wherever he can reach that level in the Premier League. I'm not sure, but the skill set is definitely similar. And I think underdyth could probably mold him to be a player like that. But it is a risky deal for you because I know Everton's finances aren't the greatest at the moment, so it could end up backfiring. But it seems to me that I think in terms of a long-term project, Chimity is a good one to have because I think you can know that, Chim, but it depends with Everton's management recently with the amount of managers they've had, Benitez, Ancelotti and now Sean Dyche, Frank Lampard. Like I said, patience is required. So if you're going to make him a Sean Dyche strike, then obviously Sean Dyche has to see out the tenure in Everton and I don't know if that's going to happen. I mean, from what I've seen of Everton in the transfer market in last season, I hope you don't mind me saying that it was a difficult season for you and it has been for the last sort of two seasons. So like I said, patience is the key word here. But with Chimity, I think it's good that Everton have gone for a project, whereas, you know, Mulpay came in last year and obviously the replacement, you've not got a replacement for Ray Charleston and that was obviously a big miss for you. So it's good to see that Everton have gone for sort of a project player instead of just spending, I guess, on the finished product and I guess if you give the time, it will be, I think will be a good result for you, but it is going to be a big gamble on such a raw prospect. No, I think, yeah, I think most realistic fans would say the same thing and don't worry, there's no harsh critics to Everton, the Neftonians definitely and the club deserve it and it has been a mess and, you know, you mentioned earlier about how you got to January with a few injuries and no strikers and no strikers in. We can definitely emphasise with that and, you know, we actually had to bring Ellie Sims back from a loan that was going perfectly well to then try and plug him in. I mentioned to me to get in front in at the deep end against Benfica. Ellie Sims started two games last season and they were away at Anfield and away at Old Trafford, so it's one of them. I just see it as being a very similar situation, obviously not a similar player, but maybe one that physically suits Dyche better and one that we can nurture and I just hope he's been able to give that time and yeah, he maybe is a move that buys Everton time in the sense of like, okay, they've got the young project player in now. Now it's like, let's see if a more experience for a bit of a stopgap becomes available because it's just the thing with Calvert Llewyan. There's no better player probably for Chimiti to learn off than Calvert Llewyan when you do look at Calvert Llewyan's development from, he was a 1.5 million punt for the academy and then from Needs Must and bad management, ironically, he became the number one striker and then Calvert Llewyan obviously nurtured him into this goal poacher and this big target man player that I suppose if Chimiti can learn off him, there's a real pathway there, but obviously Calvert Llewyan's injury issues have been a cause of Everton's concerns for the last two years. Well, that's great on Chimiti and I think he echoes a lot of what's being said by people who have watched him and you're the expert on this, so we'll just touch a bit maybe on the fee that has been reported. Do you think at 50 million euros to 20 million is the reported fee with a bit of sell-on? Do you reckon sporting would be happy with that? Do you reckon that's a fair fee for the talent and what do you expect sporting to do with that money? So in terms of sporting side of things, I think it's a fantastic deal. I think he only paid 20 plus games last season, obviously his first professional season, well half season really to get 15 million for half a season of a season that ended up in I think three or four goals. Of course, that's a great deal, I think. Obviously there was always that what if Chimiti becomes that sort of star level and gets the value, gets the goals, you think, oh well maybe sport should have held on for a bit longer, but I think here and now without the benefit of hindsight that I think it's a great deal. For Everton, I don't know if it's a good deal for Everton. Like I said, if they see it through, they see the project through then good, but Chimiti has to do a lot of the hard work himself. There's so much for the environment and everything else, but if he doesn't work for it then it's basically, it has to be down to him. But I think where you said he can learn off-cover at Lewy and he didn't have that at sporting, obviously I love Pauline but not a good striker. We had makeshift strikers before that. And obviously our academy is very good and has made great players, but I think learning in the Premier League will probably be good for him and whether Everton have bought him in to be a part of the matchday squad or maybe go out on loan somewhere, be a part of the academy. I think, I think I would say 50-50 for Everton because obviously it is a gamble, but the gamble can be worth the reward for sporting. I think even if we look back at this maybe in five years time and Chimiti does that, it's going to be good. I think here and now it's a good deal and whether we're going to reinvest it, I don't know. So, Jochres was our main signing record signing 24 million altogether. I think it was with the instalments here and there and in pre-season he's looked absolutely incredible. The positions we're looking for to sort of finish the transfer window is a number six to replace Manoio Garte, who left to PSG, and we need a right back because we've only got one registered right back at the moment and that is Ricardo Sgaio who, let's just say, splits opinion in the sporting fan base, but I think the next target for sporting is a six. We've been linked to a guy out in Serie L which I'm not even going to try and pronounce his name because it's Norwegian set in the fielder. Apparently it's a sort of done deal. I guess it's waiting on the Chimiti deal to be completed before we actually go and spend the money. Then it's just the right back who unfortunately we've not had any links recently. So I guess it's sort of one that waiting to see, but definitely I think the six is the first one in. Yeah, and it would be interesting on Saturday over so we mentioned earlier that the teams play each other and it would be like, you know, Chimiti will come over with the squad. I saw someone tweet that, yeah, Everton have been able to save on the jet. It's coming up. Just keep him up there after the friendly. We can do one half for sporting and one half for Everton, who knows. But Giochraves, you mentioned him there. Everton were heavily linked with him. They did actually extensively scout him last summer and think even maybe not inquired but offered. Last summer, Frank Lampard was demanding Premier League experience for a striker, which again probably the wrong route to go down when you end up with Neil Mopey, but Giochraves was definitely there. And then he had this kind of stellar season at Coventry and he is a player that I watched. I think, you know what, that there was doubts over him, but I think he is a good player and I do think Everton should have gone for him. But again, it's just the money you mentioned there, 24 million in installments. Everton just don't have that money. And so you say he's been looking really good in preseason. Everton fans will get to see him in the flesh at good as some more than likely on Saturday. Do you think he's going to be before we touch on Saturdays again? Do you think he's going to be a real staff spot in this year? Yeah, and I mean the price tag is definitely going to weigh heavy. Pauline was our most record signing with, I think it was 17 million euros altogether. And I would say that fee is way heavy on him. Like I said, good player, not a good striker and the goal return hasn't been the best, but he did score the winning goal to give us the title. So I guess he sort of made the feedback by one winning us league and obviously getting us into Champions League gives us a bit of money as well. So probably paid for the fee itself. But Yocrez, again, in preseason, it's great. He has a lot of expectations on him from the sporting fan base at least. And of course the management spending that much on a player for the Portuguese League is quite unforeseen unless you're Benfica who somehow have unlimited funds. But with Porto and Sporting, I think 24 million is probably like the most expensive out of them two clubs. But I think Yocrez would have been a great sign of Everton. And I know he was linked to West Ham and he had a whole bunch of clubs that were interested. Portuguese media reported that Brighton had a buyback clause on him, which they activated just before he went. But apparently he chose Sporting over Brighton. I don't know how true that is. Obviously he's just journalists and reports, but he seems to love the project. And he said so in interviews and Ruben Ambrun has spoken highly of training. Although there was one report about a week ago that said he arrived overweight and that he wasn't fit. And then the game after two days after he scored. So I don't know whether that to be true or maybe just newspapers trying to sell, of course. But he's looking good. And I think hopefully fingers crossed he can stay fit. And it looks like he's going to be a number one strike with Paul. Probably coming off the bench unless there's a formation change in there somewhere. But at the moment, I've been really impressed with him. And I guess it's up to him to continue to form. But from what I've seen from him, looking incredible, looking 24 million could actually look like a bargain deal at the end of the day. Well, yeah, I look forward to seeing him play on Saturday. And yeah, fine, we'll touch on that game. It's always the last few pre-seasons because of COVID and everything. And then coming off even a truncated pre-season last year because of the World Cup. The season started so early in August. It feels like it's felt like this is the first pre-season in a while that's been a proper pre-season. At least from an Everton's perspective, I don't know what sporting have necessarily been doing. Everton have been just really staying at home. They went and did a training camp in the Alps. But then they're staying around the UK and playing a few championship and league one teams. And then they're finishing with the final week before the season starts against a big European team. For a few years in a row, it was a Spanish side. You know, Valencia, Villarreal, Sevilla, and now it's sporting. So I think the last time we played sporting would have been 2010, 2009, 2010, and that didn't end well. I think Everton had gone, Everton was controlling the first leg in a Europe League last 16 match, I think, or last 32 when it might have been then. And then conceded a penalty late on that guy who used to play for you, Chilean, maybe? Mathias Fernandez, yeah. I absolutely loved him at the time. It was like that was the number 10, the archetypal number 10 was all in vogue, wasn't it? He was a brilliant player. And then you were sporting battered everything in the second leg. So what do you expect for Saturday? Obviously, I know it's friendly. Do you think it's sporting pretty much geared up, ready for the season now? Ruben Armourim, obviously a really highly, really coach. What can Everton's expect on Saturday? Expect to see. So pre-season for us has gone very well. The last pre-season game was actually sort of one of the pre-season trophies called the Fire Violins in English, which is just an homage to five of our legends that played, I think, between the 1940s and 50s. And we ended up beating Villarreal 3-0. So obviously Villarreal, very good team in Spain. So it was a great result. And there's been a few other results. We've had really good results against foreign teams, but teams that are also quite well in Europe. So Sporting Training Camp was in the Algarve, and it has been for the last four or five years. And I guess it's been a transitional formation period, because Ruben Armourim is trying to test different formations. I think last year we finished fourth, and for a team of our calibre was not good enough. We finished below Braga. We finished below Benfica and Porto, as much as it pays me to say the norm for sporting. So I guess that, as much as I want to finish above them, it makes sense to finish below, especially Benfica, the amount they spent and Porto, just a good team overall. But finishes in fourth below Braga meant some things had to change, and hence some sales. Ygarte pretty much funded our transfer window, because we didn't get into the Champions League, got into the Europa League. And we've made record sales with Ygarte and Chamity going out. I'm sure there's a few others that I'm missing off the top of my head as well, but it's really obvious. But there's been a few players that have gone out. We've got a few sort of back payments from having still-on-fesa players like Gonzalo Plata and a few others as well. So we've made a lot of money. We spent the majority of it apart from, like I said, we need that six coming in. But in terms of the overall game against Everton, I think we'll look to continue our good pre-season form. I believe we're undefeating in pre-season. So I think that continues. Obviously, I will not be able to go to the game as I'm on holiday the day after, which is really annoying how they have to schedule it like that. But I know a lot of my friends are going to Goodersham Park and travelling down. And I've never been to that side of England, but I've heard Everton has a passion that I saw. I want to say, I don't know if it was last season or the year before when you were battling relegation and you had the team welcome, like the flares and things. I want to say that was maybe two seasons ago. Yeah, it was. Well, they tried it last year as well at the start of last year and it just didn't really click again. But yeah, the end of 2021-22, which yeah, probably the most euphoria should be the wrong word. But you know, the unity that the club had and the fans had. But there's very much, yeah, Everton have been a mess. But yeah, the fans is pretty much the best thing they've got. So yeah, I mean, maybe not exactly the same for a pre-season friendly, but definitely, yeah, definitely have that atmosphere and yeah, the blue smoke and everything. It was pretty memorable just for the wrong reasons, really. Yeah, of course. But I remember that game pretty well. Was it with Charleston scoring the goal that pretty much kept you safe? I think it might have been Calvallun. Calvallun, yeah, the Crystal Palace game, yeah. That was it, yeah. So I mean, I'm looking for a good game. I think it'll still be a competitive game. You've known it's pre-season. This is, I think, both teams last game before the new season starts. So it'll be interesting to see. The way sport is always incredible for sporting. I was lucky enough to be at the Arsenal game last year where we won penalties and that was incredible. I've decided that I hate penalty shootouts after being in that crowd. I've never felt so sick or so nervous at the same time. But yeah, there's a way sport for sporting has always been amazing. So I'm hoping that even though it is a pre-season, we sort of bring that away day like match atmosphere to good as soon. I'm sure your fans will do the same as well. Really? Yeah, look forward to it. And hopefully, hopefully, Sam, we'll get your meteor over the line, I guess. And thanks again for speaking through it. I think from Evan's point of view, it would just be nice to get that striker in and boost the fans. But yeah, definitely patience needed. And it does appear that it's definitely not a done deal by all the talk. It's that Everton and sporting have agreed a feast. Sporting obviously open to selling him. And now it may be even having that hard task of persuading the player who maybe doesn't want to join. But if it's been made clear, you know, Gokorez is the first choice. Paulino, the second choice maybe. That pathway isn't going to be there for him at sporting. And that will twist his arm. But it'll be interesting to see. And yeah, let's hope for a good injury free game on Saturday. Yeah, most definitely. Bit of intensity, but nothing too intense. Let's put it that way. Well, thanks for joining me, Sam. Where can people follow you on social media? And how can people tune into the podcast? So the podcast handle on all sorts of things videos at 80 alfalars, which is short for all things. If you want to follow me personally, it's at south on second on Twitter. And my name is there. You can see. But yeah, if you anyone, if you have any questions, DMs feel free to DM me or the podcast account. DMs are open. So feel free to ask them questions. We'll be happy to answer as many as we can. Really. And thanks a lot for joining us, Sam. Thank you for the invite. Thank you very much.