Talks have opened over an improved deal for Everton star defender Jarrad Branthwaite
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Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton during the Premier League match with Fulham at Craven Cottage. Everton are determined to keep their star man this summer and have entered talks with his representatives over a new contract. (Photo by Shaun Brooks - CameraSport via Getty Images)
Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton during the Premier League match with Fulham at Craven Cottage. Everton are determined to keep their star man this summer and have entered talks with his representatives over a new contract. (Photo by Shaun Brooks - CameraSport via Getty Images)
Everton have opened talks with Jarrad Branthwaite about a new contract. Keeping hold of the centre back is a priority for the Blues this summer, with the 22-year-old once again the subject of interest from Premier League rivals.
David Moyes is determined to build his new-look Everton squad around the defender and, while he remains under contract for another two years, the offer of fresh terms that better reflected his importance were increasingly likely. The ECHO understands such conversations are now underway.
Branthwaite signed a new deal with Everton in the opening months of the 2023/24 season. They came amid his breakthrough into the first team under Sean Dyche.
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He would go on to become a key player that year, forming a solid defensive partnership with James Tarkowski and crowning his campaign with a goal in the Merseyside derby win at Goodison Park.
A call-up to the full England squad followed, though injury would go on to blight his summer and the beginning of last season. Once fit, he returned to the team and was pivotal again under David Moyes.
Moyes faces a major squad overhaul this summer with 10 senior players leaving the club and the futures of Seamus Coleman, Michael Keane, Idrissa Gueye and Dominic Calvert-Lewin as yet unresolved as their contracts approach expiration at the end of the month.
Central to his plans are protecting the defensive axis of Branthwaite, Tarkowski and goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
Against that backdrop, Everton have moved to tie down Branthwaite to a better deal given his rise to prominence in the past 18 months.
The club rejected two bids from Manchester United for the defender last summer, the second reaching around £50m.
Several clubs have tracked him heading into this close season, with Tottenham Hotspur, boosted by Champions League qualification, thought to hold the greatest interest at this early stage of the transfer window.
Everton, buoyed by the takeover of The Friedkin Group in December, are determined to stave off that interest and believe they are operating from a position of strength given the club’s new-found financial stability.