Everton and Manchester United face Jarrad Branthwaite transfer dilemma with £100m question mark

Agreement or no agreement? A curious game of cat and mouse seems to be playing out over Jarrad Branthwaite between Everton and Manchester United. But will the player still play in a royal blue shirt for the last historic season at Goodison Park?

The Red Devils have been eyeing Branthwaite for months. Who wouldn’t?

Everton’s breakout star of the season enjoyed a meteoric rise in 2023/24 and became the Premier League’s most brilliant centre-back. As his captain Seamus Coleman admitted after the Blues’ final game of the campaign at Arsenal: “You can’t hide that kind of talent for long.”

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Like Manchester United, England manager Gareth Southgate has monitored Branthwaite’s progress for an extended period, witnessing one of his most impressive performances to date in Everton’s 2-0 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park on December 10. But despite calling him. set for the high-profile friendlies at Wembley against Brazil and Belgium at the end of March, Southgate failed to select Branthwaite for either game. Instead, after just 28 minutes off the bench in the 3-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 3, the Three Lions boss decided to drop the 21-year-old from his 26-man squad people. The European Championships, even though Harry Maguire had already been ruled out due to injury.

While Southgate has selected in-form players in other areas of the pitch with Manchester City’s £100m signing Jack Grealish clearly not the case in central defence. As Toffee Tower pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), the England manager “Picks five centre-backs with a total of 25 caps this season (Marc Guehi, four; John Stones, four; Joe Gomez, five; Lewis Dunk, six; Ezri. Konsa; six), however the two central defenders with a total of 25 (Jarrad Branthwaite, 13) will not go.

“No absolute madness was taken. Especially when they’re used to playing England’s number one (Jordan Pickford) all season.”

Although Tarkowski, who was twice substituted by Southgate, learned to live with his own omissions, he still believed there should have been a seat on the plane for his club-mate. Ahead of Everton’s last game, the 31-year-old said: “I had this opportunity. I was a lot more frustrated than I am now and it’s nice to see someone next to me playing so well to get into that team and show what it’s all about.”

Of Branthwaite, Tarkowski added, “I think he deserves to be there. If I look at the Premier League there are some good centre-halves but Jarrad has played almost every game this year and has done very well and made very few if any mistakes so I don’t see why he wouldn’t . be there.”

Those who play alongside Branthwaite or watch him regularly can see that he has it all. This correspondent is one of them and I have to confess that I have never seen Juventus’ Gleison Bremer or Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba – Manchester United’s other reputed defensive targets – up close, but it must be something special if they have more than “ Carlisle Kaiser in their cupboards.

If the aforementioned Grealish can command a nine-figure fee, then in time so will Branthwaite, and given his young age and the premium for left-handed centre-backs and English players, there’s no reason why he can’t be worth even more than one pound. 100 million in a few years if its development continues on its current steep trajectory. Game insiders now say United are trying to complete a deal for Branthwaite before the end of this month, with his absence from England’s Euro squad removing a potential FA hurdle preventing clubs and agents from making contact over moves while selected players are away on international duty this summer.

However, despite needing a quick sale to try and avoid another PSR breach after two separate points deductions for such offenses this season, the Everton party line remains that they do not expect to- She’s losing Branthwaite and actively planning for him to lose her. be with them next season unless a mega bid comes in – and let’s remember United paid them £75m for Romelu Lukaku seven years ago. For their part, the Old Trafford bosses insist they will not be “held to ransom” for a price.

With the Red Devils themselves paying an £80m fee for Harry Maguire in 2019, Chelsea paid £75m for Wesley Fofana in 2022 and Manchester City paid £77m for Josko Gvardiol last year, Everton’s insistence that Branthwaite be considered in the same category can hardly be considered. be considered an unreasonable tactic. So Everton don’t expect to lose Branthwaite and United won’t pay, at face value the dilemma seems to have a simple solution then and he stays put.

However, life in general and Premier League football in particular is rarely that simple. Everyone in the game knows that the Blues could quickly sell one of their most valuable assets this month, and while Andre Gomes would suit all parties, ruthless owners from rival teams are unlikely to show much charity in this respect.

Director of football Kevin Thelwell has made it clear that a sustainable model must be built on smart trading, inside and outside the club. Everton also maintain that their international stars have value and will only leave if that valuation is met and the players themselves want to go, so we’ll all have to wait and see how that pans out.