Swap deal mooted with Maguire in part-exchange for Branthwaite

So more bullshit started by the daily rags. Man Utd intend to use Maguire as bait to try and land Jarrad Branthwaite.

I will be telling Man Utd to shove that idea up their arse as far as it will go………..

Quite worrying is this nonsense being touted that our Mercedes S Class centre back may be traded in for cash and a high mileage knackered Vauxhall Vectra.

Whatever happens over the next few months, the potential loss of Branthwaite will be a mighty body blow. Even if it involves selling every other player, the club must do all it can to build next year's team and squad around him.

And thank you too from me to Lyndon. Amongst much of the nonsense that we all spout from time to time (sometimes all the time!!) yours is the voice and opinion and comment of good sense, balance and reason.

The problem is we are desperate for money and every team with money knows it.

We have probably got four salable assets, Braithwaite being the main one, with Onana, Pickford and Calvert-Lewin. I would imagine at least two will go in the summer.

Rocky roads ahead. Let's hope we can put the emphasis on youth for any players we can bring in. Hopefully one or two might be able to step up from the reserves too.

A makeweight would have to be someone near Garner or Elanga who are ready to establish themselves in the Premier League.

Not someone who is going to downhill and on big wages. And not fitting our business model.

Branthwaite has held us together all season. I pray that the boy stays at least for another term.

Maguire in a makeweight swap deal? No thanks, I'd rather take Johnny Evans if that were the case and he's about 57!!

Maguire will be on mega wages and is the last thing we need right now.

I wouldn't take a penny less than £80M in a straight deal.

If Maguire is included, I'd want £100M.

Pray to God, this is the ilk of the bullshit journos, with nothing better to do, Why would Everton want another version of Michael Keane in central defence?

The agonies and genuine pain endured by Everonians for decades but enhanced these last 3 years surely must warrant this as 1st class manure not worth reading.

Another aspect for the Everton business improvement plan, no more mediocrity going forward once a new owner (not 777) is secured.

Moshiri and the late deceased Chairmen, aside to the current abyss they have brought upon Everton and set the club massive challenges to save and grow the Everton brand.
No more white at any level within the club.

Unreality this will take years to fix but a fresh start is the time to do it.

Maguire is a better defender than his current reputation. He's an upgrade on Keane. But he'd have to be willing to take a massive cut in wages which is unlikely and I'd prefer a new CB with pace like Branthwaite.

I'm hoping we keep JB for another season but if we have to sell it should not be for less than £80m, with £15m going on one of the many excellent young centre-backs out there.

They can feck off!!!!

Feck off!!!

Typical Everton swap a Bentley for a second hand Ford

No way is that a deal that should even be considered.
We need to keep hold of Branthwaite and a couple of others until at least we are playing at Bramley Moore Dock.

Bloody Maguire!? If we needed someone like him, we would play Keane.

I don't doubt we have to sell but we have to somehow keep Pickford and Branthwaite.

Hopefully someone will have a moment and offer us crazy money for Onana
..

Maguire + £70m for Branthwaite.

Man Utd to pay most of his wages would be worth considering.

The rumors will swirl around every club now that the season is almost done. Speculation is rife with reports that are 99% untrue and we must not be taken in by garbage reporting.

I never rated Maguire and even less now that he is becoming a back number and aging.

Branthwaite is a gem and every effort should be made to keep him. However, he is ready to be plucked by the ''money'' clubs as Everton's future looks glum financially if not already.

Harry Maguire, like Michael Keane, is perfectly serviceable in the right set-up, and neither deserve the shit that they receive.

That being said, Everton must move away from the playbook of trading its own future for other clubs' past.

Jarrad Branthwaite will move. But hopefully after one more year, and with Everton being given the opportunity to consolidate next season.

Maguire is going nowhere. He's on £200k a week and refused to go West Ham unless Man Utd made up the difference last season.

They signed him for £80M on a 6-year contract plus an option year at £200k a week plus performance related. That's about £160M total outlay.

Not just us that lost the plot.

Even though it is the time of year for silliness this is far too silly to be taken seriously.

Who reads the Star anyway, and those who do only have enough brain cells to look at the pictures!

Kenwright's dead. Stop this selling our best and taking Man Utd cast-off shite. Thought we'd stopped this with Rooney.

Magoo?

Fuck off - no way!!

We've got months now of reading similar rubbish.

United won't even be I'm Europe next year.

Next non-story will be a swap deal for Pickford and Ten Haag's hair dresser who sticks to the plan.

This could be our best deal since Dele Alli

Jesus wept, while it is true that 31-year-old rejected Spitfire pilot Maguire fits our recruitment strategies perfectly, what sort of message does it give us if the youngest and brightest star in England's centre-half firmament goes one way up the M62 and a clapped-out injury-prone full of himself knob comes the other way with plans already made to take over the dressing room.

No, please no, thrice no. But, if realistically this is where we are at with a dark summer of administrative, ownership, and financial turbulence ahead of us, the memory of what we once were gets more distant with each passing day.

The time to get Maguire was when Hull were relegated and Leicester bought him for £12 million.

Instead, we bought Michael Keane for considerably more.

Paul, agreed and endorsed.

Every day,is a good day but this matter of Maguire trading places cannot happen.

UTFTs!

What a load of nonsense. Swap deals just aren't really a thing in the Premier League are they?

Tabloids happy to keep pretending they are to give them something to write about though.

Unless P&S rules are abandoned for the percentage of turnover system then the rumours about the state of our accounts more than suggest that somebody who can fetch the required amount has to be sacrificed to the "Six" or a Champions League continental club.

I would like to think that any sale would include some sort of promising young player coming our way but I wouldn't want to see a back four that includes all of Coleman, Maguire and Young. The only other alternative is that the point deduction is no more than 4 points.

And Maguire on £250k a week with two years on his contract would join a shit Everton on max £100k a week for what exactly?

I would put the effort into keeping Branthwaite, although I know it is going to be difficult as he is that good.

As for Maguire. No thank you. An expensive Michael Keane.

To coin a County Road pub phrase: “Cash only!”

I was really sorry to see Richarlison go due to our finances.

Loosing Branthwaite would be even worse. He has got another 10+ years in him. If he has to go, it has to be for as much cash as possible.

I'd love us to keep Branthwaite but we're just not there as a club. If the last few years are anything to go by, we will sell by 30 June to keep financial sanctions or administration at bay.

But that needn't be so demoralising.

Leverkusen have sold Havertz, Brandt, Diaby and Bailey in the past few years for big money. They have reinvested in generally modestly priced players and assembled an extremely talented side that won the title this season – despite Bayern spending big on Harry Kane.

Bayer Leverkusen would sell Branthwaite and, I am very confident based on their recent spending patterns, replace him with 21-year-old Martin Vitik of Sparta Prague. Same age, size and style of play as Branthwaite (albeit a right-footer). Vitik will cost about £15M or thereabouts – maybe less.

Keep buying talented UK prospects like Branthwaite – and overseas counterparts like Vitik – and we could have a very talented squad in 2 to 3 seasons.

I think if Branthwaite does go, it's important we sign a left-footed replacement.

Moving Tarkowski to his naturally better right side has been one of the reasons for our excellent defensive record this season.

The thing with Jarrad is that presumably at some stage he'll want to play at a higher level, win trophies and earn more money. Whilst we can probably offer him an amended contract on better terms, we can't realistically offer him the other two for the foreseeable.

Whilst he's currently our player, irrespective of our financial situation, I feel his willingness to stay with us will be determined by his ambition. If we can get another year out of him (on improved wages), I think we will have done well.

I look at Aston Villa and see what they have achieved in less than 2 years with Unai Emery. Whilst they have made some great signings, there are still quite a few players in their team from previous managers. Sometimes things come together. I'd like to think Sean Dyche could achieve something similar.

Great players come and go.

We sold Alan Ball.

We just about got to experience Rooney, all too briefly.

I desperately hope we could retain Branthwaite, but I don't think we will.

But having paid £1M for him, we should get a significant return for him if it happens. I hope it doesn't.

There will be other gems out there that I am sure Robert is aware of.

I'm more worried about who is playing on Saturday!

Ian, Emery has done a good job but Villa have achieved what they have achieved by spending money.

If Dyche is given the budget to buy the likes of Bailey, Buendia, Diaby, Torres, Carlos, Digne, Tielemans, Zaniolo, Rogers, Duran, Dendoncker, Coutinho, Moreno, Kamara and Ings then I think we'll also be pushing more established clubs very hard.

Tell Man Utd to fuck off and spend the £100M he is worth, cheeky fuckers.

We don't need Maguire, we need young players like Branthwaite all around the team.

United are desperate to get rid of Maguire, we should not entertain being their exit route for a player (yet again).

Straight cash or if we take any players from them they should be younger and not on ridiculous wages.

Taking him in exchange would show we have learned absolutely nothing over the last few years, the things that have gotten us into the mess we're in. He's supposedly on £190k per week. He also turns 32 next season so will have zero sell-on value.

Exactly the kind of player we do not need.

Robert, agreed that Emery and other recent Villa managers have been given money. They've bought better... to be fair, they've also sold better than us to raise the funds to be able to buy, for example Grealish brought in about £100M.

Perhaps my comparison with Villa wasn't a good one. However, when I am comparing clubs and transfer policy, I often think: What would the Aston Villa board do because they always get it right!

:)

I see Lloyd Kelly's out of contract end of this season. 6ft-4in centre-back who can play left-back.

Not a bad shout imo on a free, as he can replace Branthwaite on the left side centre-back slot and fill in for Mykolenko if needed. Also English and only 25 – he will be on nowhere near £190k pw.

Spend half of any money raised on Brighton's scouting department, the other half on what they scout.

Journos playing Championship Manager.

Swap deals get rumoured all the time. How many swap deals do you actually see?

Sell Onana and Keane = £70M plus 12 months wages saved. If Dyche is not going to play Patterson, he must sell him = £15M or loan him to a defensive minded coach so he can learn to defend.

Do not renew contracts with: Lonergan, Young, Gomes and Dele. Another few bob saved. Do not renew loans or offer contracts to Danjuma or Harrison.

Offer Gueye and Coleman another 12 months on same, but preferably reduced terms. If Gueye wants more then release him.

Do not buy Maguire! – he wouldn't come anyway, I suspect.

Consider a loan for Callum Doyle from Man City. He's just spent a season on loan at Leicester City and he can play left-back and centre-back. Left-footed. Age 20.

Also from Man City, James McAtee, central midfielder. Just spent the season on loan with the awful Sheffield Utd. 5 goals and 4 assists in 33 appearances. Left-footed played on the right to good effect. Would probably cost less than Harrison in wages and his stats are better. He's 6 years younger too. Leicester are sniffing around him already.

Whilst looking at the 2 players above from Man City's U21s, I noticed they sold 3 of their U23s last summer for a combined £45.5M! Now that's the way to do it.

Jack # 47,

Man City have raised about £400m from their academy in recent years. Real Madrid do the same thing. These academies exist to provide revenue for purchases – it is not all about delivering quality to the first team.

A handful of City academy players come to the end of their contracts this summer: Susoho, Wright, Alleyne and Hamilton. Some or all might renew – but, if not, they would be worth paying a modest development fee for. I have mentioned Hamilton a few times now. He won't make it with City but he could become very good for us.

Denis #43, Lloyd Kelly might be a decent signing in the circumstances if the wage demands are not too high. The trouble is though, that he is not as good as Branthwaite – and will never become as good as Branthwaite.

In order to get ourselves up the league table, we do need to find some players of exceptional talent. Since we can't afford ready-made players of that calibre, we need to think about developing young players with tremendous potential. That's why I mention Vitik.

There's also a young Greek centre-back called Koulierakis who is linked with Milan. He is a tall left-footer too, like Branthwaite. Both have the potential to be Champions League defenders – rather than mid-table Premier League defenders like Kelly.

I study football, Robert. But not on the level you do.

I agree with you, the academy system serves two purposes.

Get the occasional (often rare) player who makes it into the first team squad. Or make money.

I am well documented in not being a fan of the modern academy system. Just a a personal opinion.

Maguire is on £190 grand a week with 18 months left on his current contract. I can't really see him moving to us.

We certainly won't be paying him that sort of money, therefore he'll probably stay at Man Utd and fight for his place.

I still swoon when I see wages written down in black and white.

£190k a week. Just imagine that for most workers.

Totally agree with Jack. If we are desperate for funds, get rid of the makeweights and hold on for dear life of the likes of Jarrad.

A) Keane, Godfrey, Holgate, Maupay straight out of the door for whatever we can get, hopefully around £40-50M

B) Get Dele & Gomes off the payroll.

C) If pushed, sell Onana for £50M.

Lot's of work to be done to cut all the overpaid dross from the roster.

Varying opinions on what that dross is but some are pretty obvious.

At this stage, the outlook for next season depends on the close season finance situation and the excess baggage we shed.

Whilst we had no real impressive performances this season (except the Liverpool game) we could have finished mid-table without the 8 eight points.

I couldn't believe the freak result at Chelsea until I saw the Chelsea score against the Hammers.

Notwithstanding that, I believe Dyche should be Manager of the Month for April given the turnaround after that Chelski game and he should be kept on for next season also.

Jay, realistically I would have thought those four makeweights will be difficult to sell – unless the price is very low.

All of them are entering the final year of their contract, will never get anything like the wages we are paying them elsewhere - and buying clubs know full well that we are desperate for money.

I'd have thought realistic values are more like this:

- Maupay (age 27 scored 6 in 30 for Brentford) maybe £10M.

- Keane (age 31, rated as rubbish by majority of fans?) maybe £8M.

- Godfrey (age 26, decent end to season but still not really clear what his position is) maybe £10M.

- Holgate (age 27, largely unsuccessful loans at Saints and Sheffield Utd) maybe £1M?

Holgate in particular is going to be very hard to sell.
More likely a loan just to get someone to subsidise his wages.

Indeed, we might not be able to sell more than 2 of them. Generating at most, say, £20M.

The trouble is that all four of them will do better financially if they sit it out with us for another season - because they'll never command anything like the wages they are on at Everton. They can then all get a free transfer and nice signing on fee with a new club in June 2025.

I take your point. Robert.

Hopefully Brentford will want to keep Maupay if Toney goes.

Robert 43,

I agree, Kelly isn't as good as Branthwaite, but I doubt we'll be able to find anyone we can afford who is. Rumours of Man Utd willing to offer £60m-£70m for him put him way out of our reach to replace like for like.

However, I think Kelly would be a decent replacement and we also need cover for Mykolenko at left-back, so it kills two birds with one stone (assuming Young isn't going to get another contract at 38...).

He's currently out of contract and doubt he'd be demanding big money coming from Bournemouth. He's also their club captain so must have a decent head on him.

Those calling for us to cash in on Keane, we've been trying to do that for 2-3 years. No one is willing to offer him the £80k pw we're paying him so he's not going anywhere, unless we cover some of his wages. I can see him sitting out the last year of his contract whilst we top up his pension by another £4M.

Dyche should have some flexibility to sign people as a few large earners are leaving - we finally get rid of Ali and his £5M a year salary. Gomes another on >£100k pw soon to be gone.

I just hope PSR rules will mean most clubs outside the top 4-6 start to reduce wages to more 'reasonable' levels as too many are close to going bust. 'Even' £50k pw is £2.5M a year so a 4-year contract is still £10M! Paying anyone £100k-£200k pw is just nuts, unless they're Messi equivalent.

As TV money goes up, wages for players just goes up with little being invested in the actual clubs to safeguard their futures.

Denis #56,

Branthwaite himself only cost £1M. We can afford young and talented. There are probably about 15 or so 19- to 22-year-olds with Champions League potential who would cost less than £15M.

The outstanding Hincapie at Leverkusen only cost £6M as a 19-year-old for example. Can we afford not to do this, when the alternative is to deteriorate yet further each time we sell?

It's okay talking about getting youngsters in but Dyche won't want them.

He wants experience because he can't coach.

Letting Jarrad go this summer would be as depressing as when Rooney was sold.

I'm hoping the PSR ramifications might already be biting everyone deeply and the big marquee signings may be put to bed by everyone for a while so there is actually very little to tempt him.

If we absolutely cannot get to 2025 without cashing in on at least 2 big money transfers then, I think we are already an irretrievable basket case.

There are a lot of clubs having to play carefully, Man Utd included — £25m losses.

I shudder at the prospect of Keane and Maguire lining up alongside each other, although Tarkowski is there and he is made of granite.

If, and I hope not, Branthwaite is sold and there was to be a swap deal, I'd rather deal with Manchester City and bring John Stones back.

Strange comment, Bobby # 58.

Dyche won't want a young centre-back to replace a 21-year-old centre-back he's just given 33 games to in his breakout season in the Premier League? Not sure I follow that logic.

And I wouldn't be so defeatist Si # 59. Selling Branthwaite could allow us to invest in a few positions such as right-back, right-wing and Number 10 where we're especially poor. So we could sell Branthwaite and improve the First XI (as per the article I wrote a week or so ago).

After all, although selling Rooney was depressing – we did finish 4th the following season and it helped Moyes build a team of players like Baines, Arteta, Pienaar, Cahill etc.

If the hope is that, in retaining Branthwaite, we might actually achieve something next season – Top 4 or a Cup – well that's probably a pipe dream whatever happens. So realistically, we need to be building to something over a 3-season timescale.

In which case, our most important signing of the summer could be as young as 16. After all, Branthwaite was about that age when we signed him.

Robert, sad thing is, if/when we sell Branthwaite, how much money will be used to invest in the team and how much will be used to pay off our debts?
Shameful.

While there is a sound argument to sell Branthwaite and re-invest the money in the squad but, given the financial mess this club is in, it probably will be that only a very small amount of his transfer money would be used to recruit more players.

While Robert is correct about Moyes using the Rooney money to re-invest in the club, we are financially in a far worse position now than then.

Over the years we have seen clubs survive and for a short period flourish in buying youngsters or producing their own and sell on for huge profits. But as Wimbledon found out at some point the ability to pick up these gems dries up and the inevitable decline starts.

I see a similar situation developing at Brighton who have sold a lot of quality players but this season it seems to be catching up with them, and it will be interesting to see how they fair next season.

Obviously Jarrad Branthwaite is attracting a lot of attention from a lot of top clubs, but when he becomes the regular England centre-back next season, he will be worth a lot more. Seeing he recently signed a new 4-year contract, I would ask him to give the club one more season with a guarantee he can leave the following summer.

Ray # 61, I would guess we might be able to reinvest about 50% of whatever sale proceeds we get this summer - and may need to spend that on more than 8 players.

Brian # 63, I am not talking about simply buying in youngsters and selling them on. And I am certainly not suggesting we sell in bulk as Brighton have been doing, since (like Saints before them) that can bite you on the arse. I am talking about building a squad over a period of years. That will involve much of what Moyes did in buying in players age 23 to 26 for small sums - as well as a bit of what Martinez did in buying / loaning high class youth (and getting Barry as a free transfer).

If you are interested in how that could potentially play out this Summer - take a look at the Summer 2024 Reset Article which considers it in more detail.

Unfortunately, we probably don't have any choice whatsoever about selling Branthwaite - and there's a good chance he'll be gone by June 30th just to help us avoid insolvency.

Branthwaite would be a fool to move to Man Utd. They are a dysfunctional club.

He should wait for Man City or Real Madrid to go after him.

Robert 57,

Branthwaite was a great find but I doubt we'll be signing someone like that regularly. However, I don't think we need to to get better as we're starting from a pretty low base team wise. Most of any money received will go on debt presumably but there should be some available.

Won't happen but if there's a bidding war for Branthwaite, selling for a big fee on condition of loaning him back for a season would be a great deal. Doubt it will happen tho.

As you note, quite a few decent youngsters out there. Our recruitment has just been so bad but at least most of the deadwood will be gone next month. I'd hope we sign at least 5-6 players and see a similar number leave.

They are out there.

We should've signed Wharton from Blackburn. He's been a brilliant signing for Palace. Could have bought him in the Christmas window, and moved on Onana.

Ian (67)

Wharton is a decent player but no club was able to buy Onana in January at anything like the price we paid for him and we had no spare cash to do any deals.

That said, our future transfer strategy must include a dip into the Championship market spotting gems before they become known and expensive.

Denis # 66, finding a £1M 16-year-old and turning him into a star like Branthwaite in 5 years is remarkable. You're right, that's not something we will repeat regularly.

Although we will repeat it more with effective recruitment of 16-year-olds – something Liverpool do very extensively and we need to catch-up with.

However, the chances of finding a high quality young replacement for Branthwaite are improved dramatically if you can spend up to around £15M.

For example, 20- to 21-year-olds Vitik (Sparta Prague), Debast (Anderlecht) and Koulierakis (Salonika) all have International and Europe or Champions League experience already – and look very likely to be excellent players (indeed they already are excellent players).

Anyway, personally, I think it's pretty likely we'll sign Jacob Greaves of Hull to replace Branthwaite and, if so, he'll do well.

The point is though, that players of exceptional talent are not beyond our budget – even if our budget is small. This concept seems to annoy people though.

Selling Branthwaite for a massive fee – nothing less than £70m/£80m in cash – would actually be a success story for the club.

How many times have I read here about our 'ridiculous recruitment strategy' or 'Why can't we sign players the way Brighton do...?' Well this, in Branthwaite's case, this is exactly the Brighton scenario. Buy 'em cheap, sell 'em large, pocket the dosh.

Wasn't Branthwaite a Brands' signing? That much-maligned DoF. Seems he may have been able to spot a player after all.

If we sell Branthwaite for big bucks, the sky won't fall in, it's good business.

Robert 69, fully agree. Young decent players are out there and we can offer a much faster route to first team football given our current (shite) squad.

It's a bit of a no-brainer so not sure why the club hasn't been more active in trying to get really good youngsters in - or at least been successful if they have been trying. We manage every now and again with the likes of Branthwite and Calvert-Lewin but far too few.

We pay Harrison supposedly £90k pw. He's bang average at best and that money could cover the wages of 3 or 4 hungry players in their late teens or early 20s. Branthwaite is supposedly on £35k pw currently and he was our best performer this season.

I get that league experience is prized but there's quite a few out there who'd be an upgrade on most of our current squad. I hope Dyche and team have done their homework and start getting fresh legs in early as a lot will be going this summer.

Robert (61),

I get what could happen but it's not that simple in reality, is it?

We have a few things that work against us, one of them being our already established wage structure which is currently unsustainable and needs resetting according to how much revenue we actually generate – not the pie-in-the-sky amounts the club would like to have.

I have to confess I have no real idea of how many promising youngsters we can bring in from abroad but I imagine Brexit didn't really help us out with that.

So yes, I find it hard not to imagine Jarrad Branthwaite sold for a good amount of money and yet getting very little team building as a result.

Under those circumstances, I'd rather keep him for a season or two more and hope his performances on the pitch are actually worth maybe 10 additional points a season and we get to admire a thoroughbred in the shirt.

Si,

I'd very much prefer to keep Branthwaite too but that seems extremely unlikely given how close we are to going bust.

“How many times have I read here about our 'ridiculous recruitment strategy' or 'Why can't we sign players the way Brighton do...?' Well this, in Branthwaite's case, this is exactly the Brighton scenario. Buy 'em cheap, sell 'em large, pocket the dosh.”

But it isn't exactlythe Brighton scenario, is it?

They are selling from a position of relative strength. Ours is desperation to keep the club afloat and trying to use the money to replace half the team.

“The point is though, that players of exceptional talent are not beyond our budget – even if our budget is small. This concept seems to annoy people though.”

It isn't the concept that's annoying Robert, it's the fact that the execution of said concept is actually much more complex than presenting a list of names and saying "Get it done."

At least our club's recent recruitment, even when we had money, makes it look like it's perhaps much more difficult to execute than to fantasise about.

Branthwaite came through because he's very good and he suited our style of play. He's a big, strong, fast defender coming into a team that defends for the majority of the game.

We can go and take a punt on young talent but what will we do with them so that their value appreciates?

The transfer strategy being talked about on here makes sense. But strategy needs to be aligned at all levels and this club never does that.

I can absolutely see us buying talented young players while employing a manager who sides heavily with experience. It would be a very Everton approach to things.

Do Standard Liege have any decent players we could poach? They seem to be in a worse mess than us.

Brian #63,

I wouldn't think it's up to Branthwaite to decide whether he gives us one more season before he leaves, it's up to our finances.

I've said before, he could be worth keeping if we'd only get a 2-point deduction for PSR next season (maybe 4 points?) but if it's more dire financially, like administration, then the club must sell surely.

And don't forget, they're looking at taking more points off us anyway for capitalising our loans interest.

Eric,

Everton cannot force Branthwaite to leave because he has a contract. If we cannot pay wages due, then we go into administration.

Dele, Gbamin, etc would have had short stays with us if we had been able to force them out.

I have to vent my spleen here.

Young Player of the Year nominations announced. Jarrad Branthwaite not included.

Don't you just hate the Premier League and everyone connected with a real blue passion.

I know what you mean, Neil, but I'm always happy when our promising players are not in the limelight.

Imagine Jarrad in the England setup with gobshites from the Sky clubs whispering in his ear about how he's wasted at Everton…

Thought the very same, Neil.

I was going to 'comment' on their website, but couldn't be arsed.

Alan (82), can't tell if you are jesting? You surely can't believe that hasn't already been happening for months?

I don't agree with the ‘psychology' of that viewpoint anyway.
I want the lad to get recognition. That's achieving something in the Everton shirt even when everything seems set against us.

That, to me, is something we should all be proud of and is more likely to make him feel comfortable where he is at present.

So this is what they term "Fake news" then!?

Just now saw this.

We don't need Maguire. We already have Michael Keane.

This is one to ignore!!!!

Everton set huge transfer fee for Jarrad Branthwaite amid rumours of Man United interest https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/jarrad-branthwaite-transfer-fee-everton-man-utd-b2553897.html Link So there is a lot of speculation surrounding Branthwaite's future. If Manchester United match Everton's valuation, it could be a big-money transfer.