In fact, Manchester United have been linked with completing the double signing of both Branthwaite and Onana, with part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe considering them strong targets to come in and take the club forward.

The midfielder, who earns £100,000 per week currently, has appeared in 29 of Everton’s 37 Premier League games this season, and has been described as a “monster duel-winner” by Raj Chohan.

Then there’s Branthwaite, who has been so impressive at the heart of Dyche’s defence alongside James Tarkowski, even scoring the opening goal in Everton’s memorable 2-0 win at home to Liverpool last month. He has won an average of 2.8 aerial duels per game in the league this season, pushing hard to be part of England’s squad at Euro 2024.

Onana could be axed to keep Branthwaite

Now, according to an intriguing update from Football Insider, Everton are willing to “sacrifice” Onana in order to keep hold of Branthwaite this summer, seemingly seeing the latter as the more important of the two.

It is stated that Bayern Munich are “extremely interested” in snapping up Onana before the beginning of next season, adding that “Everton are aware they will need to sell players this summer in a bid to avoid breaching Premier League financial rules again.”

If push came to shove, it does feel as though retaining Branthwaite over Onana would be the more preferable outcome for the Blues this summer. That’s not to say that losing the midfielder would be good news, but he hasn’t been as prominent a figure in the team of late, in terms of featuring week in, week out.

At 21, Branthwaite is also the younger of the pair, albeit admittedly only by a year, and his partnership with Tarkowski feels integral to the team’s success moving forward, with the duo proving to be the bedrock of the team during a challenging season on and off the pitch at Goodison Park. The fact that Branthwaite is a young homegrown talent also adds to the importance of keeping hold of him, unlike Onana, and while his head could easily be turned by the idea of joining United, or another huge Premier League club for that matter, the hope is that the defender sees a future at Everton, ahead of next year’s exciting move to Bramley Moore Dock.