The scene is Manchester City's training ground. It is late January, the height of the transfer window, and Mark Hughes is coming to the end of a press conference when a reporter asks, with a knowing smile, whether there has been a stampede of clubs wanting to sign Jo. The Brazilian has become a £19m white elephant, a symbol of Thaksin Shinawatra's extravagance, and there is cruel laughter. Hughes is not renowned for his humour. But he is in on this joke. "We don't want to sell Jo," he deadpans. "We want to keep Joe . . . Hart."

Boom, boom.

The anecdote is an accurate reflection of how quickly a multi-million-pound footballer can be reduced to a subject of ridicule. This is a furiously impatient business and Jo has found out the hard way what can happen when a price tag starts to feel like a ball and chain. It is probably fortunate for him that he does not speak good English given some of the things that have been written about him and some of the insults that were shouted his way before Hughes began the process that has led the Brazilian to Everton's door, on loan for the rest of what has become a difficult first season in English football.

David Moyes, Everton's shrewd manager, has subsequently spoken of Jo just needing some "affection". The players at Goodison were told to go out of their way to make him feel welcome. Phil Neville, the captain, introduced him to all the staff and passed on his phone number. Jo has responded. He scored twice on his debut against Bolton Wanderers, the second a pearl of a goal, and has three in six games going into Everton's match against Wigan Athletic tomorrow.

"The people here have given me so much more support," he says. "I felt it from the first moment I came to the club and every footballer needs that kind of care. Phil Neville is never too far away, always asking if I am OK, if I need anything. But it's all of the players, not just Phil. They have all looked out for me. It feels like Everton is my home now."

But there are glimpses of hurt, too. He is using his interpreter, Pedro, but you can see from his body language that it is a difficult subject for him to tackle. Jo was City's record signing when he arrived from CSKA Moscow in July but the experience, he is willing to admit, left him frustrated, isolated and unloved. "It has been really hard, especially being in a foreign country. I have felt lonely at times. I had people visit me from Brazil and I had support from [City's other Brazilian players] Robinho, Elano and Glauber [Berti], but they all have their own families whereas I was on my own. I didn't have any relatives living nearby. I didn't have a friend next door who I could turn to. I didn't have my mother and father just down the street. I have had a lot of time by myself to think about things and it hasn't been easy."

His conclusion? "I think it's a little unfair. I was there only six months and I would call that an adaptation period. In my opinion, you should have at least one season to adapt before everyone judges you. Unfortunately no one really thinks like that."

He sounds exasperated. "Look at my background. I started off in Brazilian football, which is slightly easier than playing in Europe. Then I jumped to playing in Russia, which was a quick style of football but not much physical contact. Then, suddenly, I jump to the best league in the world and there is no time to adapt. It's difficult. You need everything to play in this league. You need to be fit. You need to be physically strong. You need to have a lot of technique. It's so fast. When you get the ball you don't have a lot of time to think."

But Jo has a history of scoring goals. He accumulated 44 in 77 games for CSKA, including 14 in his first 18 games, and scored home and away against Internazionale in the Champions League last season. His 13 goals in 85 appearances for Corinthians is less impressive, but the taxi driver's son from Sao Paulo – João Alves de Assis Silva, to give him his full name – was barely out of school. He had become the club's youngest ever player when he made his debut, aged 16. This is no ordinary Jo.

So what went wrong at City? "I find it strange because I had quite a good start and then for some reason – something that has never been explained to me – I was suddenly no longer playing. I was training well, like I normally do, but I didn't have happiness."

He scored only three times in his 14 starts and five substitute appearances for the club – twice against AC Omonia in the Uefa Cup and once in the 6–0 thrashing of Portsmouth – and it did not help when Hughes fined him for having a night out when he was supposed to be recuperating from tonsillitis. "It's true, that did happen," he says, "but I don't think that can be used as a reason why I was always left out. It's a mystery to me."

The truth, the horrible truth, is that Hughes never wanted him in the first place. Jo had been signed by Thaksin, then City's owner, on the recommendation of agents rather than scouts. The deal was originally put in place when Sven-Goran Eriksson was manager and the middle men received around £5m for their troubles. Jo was, in short, imposed on Hughes.

"I have heard that," says Jo, "but there were other players who were already here before he joined the club and they still played. The honest answer is I don't know what his reasons are. I've never been told and the manager has never spoken to me about it."

He thinks back to his last game under Hughes, as an unused substitute in a 1-0 defeat at Stoke City on 31 January. "We lost and I didn't play. I picked up my belongings, went home and by the Monday the deal had been done [with Everton]. Since then I have heard from many people at City, because I have a lot of friends at the club. But I haven't heard from the manager once."

The following Wednesday, Jo was in the crowd at Goodison Park when Dan Gosling's extra-time winner knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup. When he walked into the dressing room it was bedlam: a scrum of players hugging and dancing, swigging champagne and singing songs. "The friendship and togetherness here is much better," he says. "Most of the players have been together for two or three seasons. They might change one or two players every year but generally it's the same group, whereas at Manchester City there have always been players coming in and out. It takes time to gel, to form that togetherness. It wasn't there at City."

Moyes had been clever enough to recognise that Jo would not have won three caps for the Brazil national team if he is as bad as the reports from City suggested. "It's been like a new start," says Jo. "I can see that people believe in me here and, because of that, I have started to believe in myself again. You could see all the frustration released when I scored my first goal."

His future, however, is uncertain. "If I had to choose, I will choose to stay at Everton. But if I have to go back to City I will go back. I believe in myself and if I go back I will try to show what I can do." He would never be tactless enough to say it outright, but it has clearly crossed his mind that it would not be a bad thing for him if Hughes were to lose his job. "If a new manager comes in, you don't know ... I just have to show what I can do, whoever is the manager. Whoever it is, I am confident I can show I am a good player."