Everton

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We asked for your views on Jarrad Branthwaite and his future at Everton, after one er described him as "priceless" to the club and a "generational talent".

Here are some of your comments:

George: Give him a long-term contract that rewards him now and gives him progressive incentives to stay. Monetary and status (club captain?). Make him want to stay. The grass is not always greener elsewhere!

Dave: Yes, I completely agree that he must stay at Everton. He is beyond doubt an excellent centre-half and will only keep on improving as years progress. Give him all the encouragement he needs to stay at a club that is on the up.

Graham: Branthwaite is the best young centre-back in the world! Tall, strong, quick, good ing ability, everything you need. Just needs to improve his leadership, but that will come with age. Nothing would tempt me to sell him, as you cannot replace him. If the club were to sell, the figure at least has to be £100m starting point. He would be a steal at £150m!

David: I hope Jarrad can give us one more season. Then take stock and see if we are progressing. If an offer he or we can't refuse, then fine. Part ways on good . But if we overachieve and we are in Europe, then just maybe he will stay.

Jameson: Branthwaite is a really talented defender, but as a Blue, he's not irreplaceable. John Stones? Another generational talent lost less than a generation ago for a quite tidy sum of money. I hope we keep him, but if we don't, it's not the end of the world. We need equally talented players higher up the pitch more, and could plug in Keane in defence and still do OK.

Mike: I would like Branthwaite to spend his career with us, but that's not going to happen. He's better than Stones, and he went for £50m years ago. Chelsea paid £75m for Fofana, that's a starting bid. Branthwaite has not been trying to force a move. He seems to be a decent lad. He has a couple of years left on his contract. Hopefully someone will offer stupid money, which would help further stabilise to club.

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With a first summer transfer window under the new ownership and a number of players out of contract, Everton could be set for a busy and transitional off-season.

Toffees fans will be keeping a close eye on what happens with Jarrad Branthwaite, the defender having attracted interest previously and being one of the club's most highly valued assets.

Everton fan Lee McClean told BBC Radio Merseyside: "My number one priority is keeping him at all costs. I would refute any sort of bids for him and would love to work around it if we possibly can and explore every option.

"I think he is priceless, he is a generational talent.

"Despite Everton's struggles, and we have just finished 13th again, I think we are third or fourth in defensive stats. If you look at Everton's goalkeeper and centre-half pairing, it is almost faultless. Even the top four would probably have a decision to make if they were given the option to replace what they have got with what Everton have got - it is that good.

"So even if we got £100m [for Branthwaite], what are you going to do with it? You are not going to improve on what we have got because Everton aren't in a position to go and pick a £50m centre-back from the top four or five in Europe because we are just not.

"But you have to be realistic. As much as we are partisan and romantic and would love Jarrad Branthwaite to stay with Everton like Dave Watson for the whole of his career, football has changed.

"He can be anything he wants to be, he can play for any club in Europe, and we are not talking potential - he is the real deal now. His ceiling has still got so much more left, he has still got so much headroom.

"So unless Everton can match his ambition and do something like Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest have done, then Branthwaite has got every reason to say 'I'm gone'."

How do you feel about Branthwaite's future with Everton? Do they need to keep him at all costs?

Let us know

Listen to the full discussion on BBC Sounds

Nicola Pearson
BBC Sport journalist

As the dust settles on the 2024-25 Premier League season, we have been taking a look at some of the alternative ways the the table could have finished...

ing in football has become an obsession.

The tiki-taka style of Barcelona has now become the basis of managerial philosophies across the leagues and lands of Europe and beyond.

The problem is, few teams have the ability to execute it at the level required to make it effective.

Pep Guardiola took it to another level when he was in charge of the La Liga giants and it has served his Manchester City side well since he took charge in 2016 having won 18 trophies in the following nine years.

And, if the Premier League season had come down to how well teams the ball, unsurprisingly the eight-time champions would have been celebrating a ninth title.

With nearly 90% accuracy, they rarely put a foot - or - wrong.

And yet, in reality, it did not translate to success on the pitch this year.

Whether it was teams finally finding the chinks in the ing-machine armour or the side's misplaced es proving more costly than in previous seasons without key players, City could not take advantage of their dominance with the ball.

And for one of the most acute examples of ability with the ball not translating to on-the-pitch success, we only have to look at Southampton.

The Saints at one point looked set to break Derby County's record for the least amount of points in a Premier League campaign, and yet they were less than 1% behind actual league champions Liverpool when it came to ing accuracy.

While fans could have some appreciation for watching nice football, they might have appreciated some scrappy displays that resulted in hard-fought results and possible safety more.

In contrast, Crystal Palace had the least accurate ing of any team in the league.

And yet, Oliver Glasner's side ultimately finished 12th - just three points off a top-half finish - and won the FA Cup final against the club with the best ing ability of them all.

They are not the only team to have had successful seasons in their own right while being in the bottom six for ing accuracy.

Nottingham Forest were 19th in this table metric, but in reality were fighting for Champions League places.

Bournemouth and Brentford also battled for possible European spots into the final weeks of the season, and even Everton finished the campaign comfortably away from relegation that at one point they looked set to be in a battle to escape.

So what does this tell us? When it comes to winning football matches, ing the ball well is not the be-all and end-all.

*Table data from Opta

Nicola Pearson
BBC Sport journalist

Time is ticking on Dominic Calvert-Lewin's Everton future.

The 28-year-old is now into the final month of his with club and there is yet to be any announcement of an exit or new deal.

In a recent BBC Sport interview, Calvert-Lewin talked of how he has led the line through one of the "most difficult" periods in the club's history and that "Everton will always be a place that is special to me, so we will see what happens".

One thing that perhaps complicates the situation for the Toffees and Calvert-Lewin's future is his unfortunate recent history of injury and fitness issues.

BBC Sport pundit Nedum Onuoha has suggested that the striker should be kept on, but as a "squad player" on a "reduced wage and perhaps appearance-based clauses".

Calvert-Lewin ed the club from Sheffield United for £1.5m in 2016 and has since scored 71 goals in 273 games across all competitions.

The England international's impact steadily grew and his most prolific season in the Premier League came in 2020-21 when he netted 16 goals in 33 games.

His shot conversion rate peaked at 19% while his minutes-per-goal ratio was at its lowest at one every 180 minutes.

That was also the season where he spent the most time on the pitch racking up 2874 minutes.

The previous season had also been one where he showed his capabilities in front of goal - also reaching double figures with 13 - and where he played the most games of his league career with 36.

However, 2021-22 is when issues with injuries and fitness really started to appear.

His appearances in the league fell from 33 to just 17, but he was still able to contribute in front of goal with a shot conversion rate equal to that of 2019-20.

The following season was particularly difficult, with just 17 appearances again, his fewest minutes on the pitch since his debut campaign, a minutes-per-goal ratio that more than doubled to 586 and shot conversion rate down at 6%.

In the past two seasons, although he has managed to pick up the numbers when it comes to games, how much of those he has spent on the pitch has evolved.

Although he played 32 times in 2023-24, he started 26 of those and often did not get to finish the match, being substituted off on 22 occasions.

Last campaign, he started just over half the 26 matches he played and was subbed off in just under half of those.

It meant he struggled to return to the same levels of output as he produced during his peak campaigns, with just 10 goals across the past 58 games.

If a new deal can be reached with Everton, unless he can rekindle his previous form, Calvert-Lewin may have to adapt to a more ing role in the team than that of the first-choice striker.

Image source, Getty Images

We asked for your questions for BBC Sport pundit Nedum Onuoha on your Premier League club.

Chris asked whether Everton should keep Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the expiry of his contract this summer.

Realistically, you have got to say this next season is going to be huge for Dominic Calvert-Lewin personally.

People have seen his talents but the goalscoring record that got him in and around the England squad is becoming longer and longer ago.

He needs to find a stretch where he is healthy, fit and available because you want to be able to rely on a striker and Everton have not been able to rely on Calvert-Lewin for a long time now.

To have a potential England international in the squad is brilliant - but only if they are available. The club will need to have a serious look at what they can do to first keep him healthy, but then secondly to keep him sharp. This comes from competition in the squad.

He is worth keeping for now because is there cover if Everton decide to let him go? Do they have someone who can fill those boots straight away?

Beto has done well in parts and been trusted in the back half of the season. I do not think Calvert-Lewin himself, or anyone at Everton, really expects him to be a guaranteed starter going forward. Unfortunately for him, he just has not played enough football in the past few seasons.

If the club can find a way to offer him a new deal - on a reduced wage and perhaps appearance-based clauses - then I would keep him as a squad player.

Any new contract would need to reflect his lack of football. He is just not going to get any deal on the same as when he was pushing to play for England, and if the player does not accept that or wants a fresh start then he should go.

Hopefully for Calvert-Lewin, he can work his way back to being a regular starter and regular goalscorer soon.

Nedum Onuoha was speaking to BBC Sport's Nat Hayward

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Football finance expert Kieran Maguire spoke to BBC Radio Merseyside on Everton's financial situation for the transfer window.

"I think Everton have to box clever," Maguire said. "I imagine Evertonians will be slightly frustrated because moving to this magnificent new stadium, it would be great to have a significant number of stellar gs.

"I still think Everton have the capacity to make one statement g. A player of £40 to £50m, that's certainly within their capabilities but I think they will also have to be dealing with getting a few players off the payroll on the 30th of June when contracts expire, and using the exit door smartly to allow them to invest in the future.

"It's always a balancing act. Liverpool did it really well with the sale of Philippe Coutinho and they used that sale to build the spine of the side with the recruitment of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.

"If the club were to make a major sale, the fanbase would expect that to be invested in players who can make an immediate difference, and therefore players that have an element of experience at a reasonable level of football."

Everton would have to match Thierno Barry's release clause of 40m euros (£33.7m) to sign the French striker from Villarreal. (Teamtalk, external)

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

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Mike Richards
Fan writer

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This summer will see a raft of changes, both on and off the pitch at the football club.

The most obvious is our move to the newly named Hill Dickinson Stadium - ensuring next season will have an alien feel for all Evertonians.

What this means and where it will catapult the club to in the longer term will take some time to establish, but it will surely have a positive impact in attracting new players.

The number of departing players already highlights exactly how much work there is for the manager and recruitment team to do.

Certain positions will certainly take precedent over others.

The permanent g of Charly Alcaraz has certainly been a positive start to proceedings.

The full-back positions are both an area of concern, with right-back a priority, as it has been for the last couple of summers.

Nathan Patterson has struggled to impress since his arrival in 2022, and any notion he was the successor to the Seamus Coleman full-back role has sadly diminished.

The club have already made a statement of intent in looking to improve the ability in the final third, with Liam Delap approached and offered a deal to sign.

Although the move did not materialise, it tells you that a new number nine is top of the manager's wishlist and rightly so.

I would love to see the same hunger applied to recruiting more pace in attacking areas.

It is evident we will not be able to tackle every area this window, but I would hope to see raw speed seriously considered.

The transition from defence to attack can often be pivotal.

One thing is for sure, we all need to strap ourselves in for a whirlwind period of change this summer.

Find more from Mike Richards at Unholy Trinity, external

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Everton have confirmed their first two matches of the 2025-26 pre-season.

The Toffees will face League Two side Accrington Stanley on 15 July at Wham Stadium, followed by a match against Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers on 19 July at Ewood Park.

Everton, Manchester United and West Ham could make a move for Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, with Al-Hilal prepared to offload the 30-year-old. (Talksport), external

Chelsea are considering a move for Everton and England centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite, 22, while Tottenham could rival the Blues for his signature this summer. (Teamtalk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Tuesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

BBC Sport pundit Nedum Onuoha has given us his insight and opinion every fortnight on your Premier League club throughout this season.

But this week, he's in the hotseat for your questions.

Maybe ask him who should be on your club's radar this summer, or where a rumoured target or new g might fit into the team.

Perhaps see what he thinks about how successful a new recruit might be, who it is vital to keep, or what is needed to make next season a success.

Send in your questions here and we'll put a selection to him

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BBC Sport chief football news reporter Simon Stone is answering your questions on the summer transfer window.

Adam asked: Will David Moyes have money to spend this summer, or are Everton, and other non 'big six' clubs, held back by the two-tier PSR rules?

Simon answered: I think this summer will be fascinating for Everton. To answer your substantive point, they will be held back by the rules because they have made losses that clearly put them in P&S trouble historically and they are still being worked through.

Also, while the costs involved in building the new stadium have been refinanced in a much less onerous way, they still have to be paid and the benefits, such as increased matchday revenue, are only just starting to be felt in of season ticket sales. If their approach at Roma is any guide, the Friedkin Group would presumably be keen to spend big this summer. However, that seems unlikely without player sales.

In addition, that is not David Moyes' approach. It sounds boring, and it might not be what you want to hear, but I think if Everton can remain quietly in mid-table next season, that would get them to a point where they can really kick on in 2026-27.

Follow the Q&A and the rest of the day's football news on our daily live page

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Paul Brown from the Paddock Blues podcast spoke to BBC Radio Merseyside about Carlos Alcaraz g for Everton on a permanent deal: "It was a no-brainer, at the end of the season it was the deal we all wanted to be done straight away so I'm really happy about it.

"He just has something different about him - he gets his head up and runs with the ball and is always looking for options around him. We don't have a lot of players who are comfortable on the ball but he is definitely in that category."

On Abdoulaye Doucoure's departure, he added: "Of course they are both footballers, but I would call Alcaraz more of a 'footballer' than Doucoure. We are trying to go down a different route and we will want the ball more going forward.

"I would have kept him personally, but if he went than so be it. We need to move on as a club from the past five years and start fresh with a new ground and owners."

Everton are interested in Brighton midfielder Matt O'Riley, 24, but are unsure if the Seagulls will sell the Denmark international. (Sky Sports), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

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We asked for you to tell us what Everton need to do in the summer transfer window.

Here are some of your comments:

Bray: I would like to see Francisco Trincao from Sporting. It's quite unrealistic but I feel he could flourish under David Moyes.

Jeff: We finally seem to be getting rid of the deadwood. Doucoure has not been given a new contract and the on-loan failures are all going back to their clubs. That's all positive. Seamus Coleman has been a great servant to the club but he really needs to hang up his boots. He is part of the deadwood too. We also need to offload Calvert-Levin. He is a Championship striker at best. On top of that, he is injured half of the time.

Martin: Everton have always been known for talismanic strikers, like Dean, Young, Royle, Latchford, Ferguson and Lukaku. We desperately need to find another one!

Chris: First thing is to sort the wheat from the chaff with the out-of-contract players. Second is to sign Alcatraz. Delap has chosen to go to Chelsea so we need a reasonably priced striker. Moyes is good at bargain buys. Look to the Championship - Cahill came from Preston and what a star he was. Also look at our academy players and use them in cup games - that's how Sir Alex Ferguson unearthed his golden boys. We need a couple of back-up defenders, midfielders and a number nine.

Sam: Nick Woltemade is one to look at for versatility in attack, and Kyle Walker-Peters on a free looks like a steal as cover for both full-backs. Apart from that, we need a partner for Idrissa and a marquee right winger and we're good to go.

Thank you for the you submitted on the Premier League club pages.

Our aim is to contain all of the BBC's in-depth coverage of that team in one place, so it helpful to hear from you - you are who the pages are for after all.

We are going through all your responses and will take suggestions on board for next season.

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Everton fan Mike Richards has identified Southampton right-back Kyle Walker-Peters as a player the Toffees should look to sign this summer.

The 28-year-old is yet to sign a new deal with the Saints and could be available on a free transfer.

"There has got to be a mixture of deals [this summer] - using cash, the loan market and free transfers," Richards told BBC Radio Merseyside.

"Someone like Walker-Peters is on a free. We need these kind of players who know the Premier League. He's a good standard and can play left-back and right-back.

"We are losing Ashley Young, who has done a decent job at left-back and right-back. It is a shame he is gone, but Walker-Peters [would be a good replacement].

"He wouldn't be on huge wages and would be helpful at the back."

Listen to the full discussion on the summer transfer window on BBC Sounds

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The transfer window opens on Sunday - albeit for 10 days initially, mainly so sides competing in the Club World Cup can get early business done - before reopening for the rest of the summer on 16 June.

Are there certain players you are desperate for Everton to sign, or an area of the squad that needs improving? Or maybe holding on to a key player is your biggest priority. And what about sales - who needs to go?

So over to you... what names need bringing in and shipping out?

Let us know here

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Everton fan Mike Richards spoke to BBC Radio Merseyside about the importance of g Carlos Alcaraz on a permanent transfer following his loan spell from Flamengo: "[David] Moyes has been careful with him and he hasn't just invoked the clause automatically.

"Moyes puts a lot on the character of the players. He has turned players down before because he has met them and not liked them.

"It is not big money, I think it is a bargain. If we let that deal slip, other Premier League sides will have watched him since January and get him for themselves for that kind of money.

"I've been really impressed by him. I see him as an evolution in that number 10 role - going from Doucoure, who is a hard worker but not technically the best, to Alcaraz, who carries the ball really well and scores and assists. He impacts the play further up the pitch a lot more than Doucore.

"For me, it was the most obvious deal of the summer to get done."

Listen to the full discussion on the summer transfer window on BBC Sounds

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We asked for your views on our fan contributor Mike Richards' end of season scorecard (27 May, 12:43 BST).

Here are some of your comments:

Jack: Totally agree with everything Mike said. I am now looking forward to a new season with optimism instead of nervousness. Well done Moyesy for turning our team around.

Mark: I agree with Mike. We need to look at this as a three-year project. As we need to develop a new team with a mix of current and new players. Our target next season should be 10th or higher. the classy "B" teams and progress from there.

Paul: I totally agree the second half of the season has been nothing more than remarkable. All of the players have rolled their sleeves up and really got stuck in since the new owners have come in, in such a short space of time. Things are really on the up.

Gary: A breath of new blue air when David Moyes returned, a great second half of the season, cannot wait to visit and watch at the new stadium and the transition to better times. COYB

Adam: My overriding emotion from our season is optimism...which is always a worrying sensation for us Evertonians! But we should be optimistic for once. We've got a manager who just gets our club perfectly and who will only bring in players who are willing and able to be taught about our club. We've got our shiny new stadium to make our own and build the atmosphere and rituals from scratch. We've got our finances and behind-the-scenes back in order. And we've got owners who are seemingly very keen to align themselves with what our club stands for and who have now got some good experience of owning a big, historical, ionate club through Roma. Everything, literally everything, for once is aligning and coming together and pointing to a much better future from Everton Football Club.