Sean Dyche has claimed the club are braced for interest in their star assets this summer.

The Everton manager spoke ahead of his side’s clash with Arsenal in the Premier League and revealed that the summer is going to be difficult amid a lot of uncertainty regarding their squad. Outgoings are expected as the likes of Jack Harrison and Arnaut Danjuma will return to their parents clubs. In addition, the overriding financial issues that continue to plague the club continue to provide a sense of dread when it comes to the summer market. If players leave then the club will need to replace them which could prove difficult. Especially when their squad was already in need of some work. It could even see one of Jarrad Branthwaite or Amadou Onana depart as well; both have been targets for Manchester United while Onana has attracted attention from Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, with fees of £50m being reported. And Dyche was resigned to the fact the club will receive interest this summer and could be forced to make decisions. “It’s still not a balanced situation, we’re going to have to look at a balanced view of what could occur.” He said at his press conference ahead of Arsenal. “It puts a lot of added attention on the recruitment side of things because the wider the parameters then the harder it is – that’s been the reality since I’ve got here and we’ll be ready for what we can do. “Kevin [Thelwell] has spoken about the fact we are likely going to have to sell, we don’t know, we don’t know what or when exactly because obviously we are not open to that. But if people are going to come for our players, which we think for certain players they will do, then we’ll have to be open to that because that’s the reality of the club and the finances.”

With Branthwaite part of a defence that has conceded the fourth-least goals, it makes sense that the defender, who signed a new deal earlier this season, would be kept unless a mammoth fee came in. However, while Onana may be easier to replace, he has the best defensive duel percentage in Europe this season and he has been in terrific form.