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

Deal or no deal? A curious game of cat and mouse seems to be unfolding over Jarrad Branthwaite between Everton and Manchester United. But will the player still be turning out in a royal blue jersey for the historic final season at Goodison Park?

The Red Devils have been casting admiring glances at Branthwaite for several months now. Who wouldn’t?

Everton’s breakthrough star of the season has enjoyed a meteoric rise during 2023/24 and has become the brightest centre-back prospect in the Premier League. As his captain Seamus Coleman admitted after the Blues’ final game of the campaign at Arsenal: “You can’t really hide talent like that for long.”

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Like Manchester United, England manager Gareth Southgate has been monitoring Branthwaite’s progress for a prolonged period having witnessed one of his most impressive performances to date up close when he attended Everton’s 2-0 win over Chelsea at Goodison Park on December 10. But despite calling him up for the high-profile Wembley friendlies against Brazil and Belgium in late March, Southgate failed to pick Branthwaite for either fixture. Instead, after just a 28-minute run-out off the bench in the 3-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 3, the Three Lions boss decided to leave out the 21-year-old from his 26-man squad for the European Championships, even though Harry Maguire had already been ruled out through injury.

While Southgate has selected players on form in other areas of the pitch with Manchester City’s £100million signing Jack Grealish missing out, that is 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 combined 25 clean sheets this season (Marc Guehi, four; John Stones, four; Joe Gomez, five; Lewis Dunk, six; Ezri Konsa; six) yet the two centre-backs with a combined 25 (Jarrad Branthwaite, 12; James Tarkowski, 13) are not going.

“Absolute madness neither were taken. Especially when they’re used to playing the whole season with England’s number one (Jordan Pickford).”

Although Tarkowski, who has been capped twice by Southgate, has learned to live with his own omissions, he still believed there should have been a place on the plane for his club colleague. Ahead of Everton’s last game, the 31-year-old said: “I’ve had that opportunity. I used to get a lot more frustrated than I do now and it’s nice to see someone next to me who is playing so well to get in that squad and showing what it’s about.”

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

Those who play alongside Branthwaite or who watch him on a regular basis can see that he’s got it all. This correspondent is one of those and must confess I’ve never seen Juventus’ Gleison Bremer or Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba – Manchester United’s other reputed defensive targets – up close but they must be something special if they’ve got more in their lockers that ‘The Carlisle Kaiser.’

If the aforementioned Grealish can command a nine-figure fee then so in time can Branthwaite and given his tender age and the premium for left-footed centre-backs and English players, there’s no reason he can’t be worth even more than a £100million in a few years’ time if his development continues on its current steep trajectory. Those inside the game are now saying that United are attempting to seal a deal for Branthwaite before the end of this month, with his absence from England’s Euros squad removing the potential stumbling block of the FA preventing clubs and agents from making contact over moves while the selected players are away on international duty this summer.

However, despite being in need of a quick sale to try and avoid another PSR breach after two separate points deductions for such offences this season, the party line from Everton remains that they don’t expect to lose Branthwaite and are actively planning for him to be with them next season, unless a mega offer comes in - and let’s remember that United paid them £75million for Romelu Lukaku SEVEN years ago. For their part, Old Trafford chiefs insist they won’t be “held to ransom” over a price.

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

Life in general and Premier League football in particular is seldom so straightforward though. Everyone in the game knows that the Blues could do with a quick sale of one of their most-valuable assets this month and while that being Amadou Onana would suit all parties, ruthless owners at rival teams are unlikely to show much charity in this respect.

Director of football Kevin Thelwell has made it clear that a sustainable model has to be built on astute trading, in and out of the club. Also, Everton maintain their international stars have a value and they 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.