Reds both back in for Everton starlet Branthwaite

The future of the 22-year-old had dominated the headlines over the last transfer window with the Everton player being constantly linked with a move away from Goodison Park.

United were the favourites, with the Old Trafford club being sporadically said to be close to striking a deal for Branthwaite during the summer.

All this was set against the background of the severe financial pressures that the Toffees were under, meaning that such a sale might well take place.

In the end nothing concrete came of these stories - although there were reports that United and Branthwaite had agreed personal terms.

Liverpool too, were more surprisingly also linked with the Blues star. But again this did not lead anywhere and the rumour also subsided.

So, after all that Branthwaite remained an Everton player as the 2024-25 Premier League campaign kicked off.

However, the 'Carlise Kaiser' missed the opening five matches of the season due to injury and it showed with the Toffees looking much more vulnerable defensively than in the previous campaign.

The Blues let in a surfeit of goals with seven conceded in the opening two fixtures and then another six more before the one-all draw at Leicester City, which secured Everton's first point of the season.

Branthwaite returned for last weekend's game against Crystal Palace at Goodison and the Toffees finally won coming from behind to beat the Eagles 2-1.

Now, fresh media reports claim the fit again England player is once again a transfer target for both Liverpool and United.

Of course, the background to this situation has changed since the summer with Dan Freidkin's group returning to secure a takeover deal for the club after initially walking away.

With Friedkin's investment group now very likely to become the new owners of Everton there is far less pressure on the club to sell their most marketable playing assets.

In a new twist, other stories doing the rounds claim that in fact the Blues could in fact themselves be ready to spend substantially in the January transfer window.

At any rate it seems extremely improbable that the Toffees new regime will sanction a sale of Branthwaite in January, and especially to their bitter Merseyside rivals.