Everton star might be sold in summer to balance books according to media source

This report claims the Everton defender could be sold this summer to help the Toffees avoid falling foul of PSR once again when the new Premier League campaign begins.

As we all know the Blues have secured their top flight status for another season after a tremendous and almost surreal week when Everton won three consecutive home games without conceding a goal.

With the Brentford win last weekend attention will begin to turn to how can the club find a way to do everything on the pitch to ensure they avoid a repeat of this dreadful season.

First of all the Toffees need a resolution of the issue of who owns the club and whether prospective new owners 777 Partners will be allowed to complete their proposed takeover.

This saga has been going on since last September when the US investment group agreed to buy Farhad Moshiri out and thereby take control of Everton.

As the club also waited for a decision from the Premier League's commission on their alleged financial failures and breaches of PSR, this issue also went on and on.

The commission did reach a conclusion eventually and docked the Blues ten points initially in November before it was reduced on appeal to six.

But despite that there is still no clarity over whether a decision about 777 Partner's takeover will be reached anytime soon, most of all in this current season.

If they do finally get that green light then getting to grips with the financial position of the club will be their first priority.

777 Partners have already put a lot of money into the club and just recently made another loan available to keep the Toffees afloat.

It certainly looks from the outside as though those finances are a real mess and will take some proper planning to sort it and also probably some difficult decisions.

It is very likely then that in order to balance the books, certainly in the short term, Everton will have to consider selling some of their best players.

No one will be really surprised at this and it does seem as though one or two of the Blues best young players might well be leave.

Most likely to go is Amaodu Onana. The Belgian international midfielder is almost certainly going to move on this summer.

The other candidate is Branthwaite. Will the club's new owners have to sell the England international star when they open the books up?

I really hope the answer is no but I fear that this scenario could well take place.