The £80 million wall: City crash the race for England's most coveted defender

For two years the Premier League's giants have circled Goodison's successor stadium for one man, and now the richest predator of them all has joined the hunt.

Details: Manchester City have entered the race to sign Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite, who is valued at 80 million pounds, according to journalist Graeme Bailey. The 24-year-old England international is under contract at Everton until June 2030.

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Branthwaite has been English football's most wanted homegrown defender since Manchester United's rejected 35 million pound bid back in 2024, a saga that taught everyone Everton's price: nothing below the Maguire-Gvardiol territory. The left-footed centre-back, plucked from Carlisle United in 2020 for pennies, has grown into the complete modern defender at Everton's gleaming new stadium, front-foot aggressive in the tackle, serene in possession, and increasingly present in the England picture. City, reigning under Enzo Maresca with a perfect start to the season, already field a back line featuring Dias, Gvardiol and Khusanov, but the club's recruitment model has always prized stockpiling elite young talent before the market peaks, and at 24 Branthwaite fits the profile exactly. The obstacle is familiar: Everton signed him to a fresh five-year contract in July 2025 and have shown zero appetite to sell, with the 80 million pound valuation designed to scare off exactly this kind of interest. Whether City's financial gravity can bend that resistance will be one of the defining transfer stories of the coming windows.

It's worth noting that Branthwaite made his Premier League debut as a teenager on loan and earned his first senior England cap in 2024, all before Everton paid anything close to his current value.

Reminder: Liverpool and Man United hunt 18-year-old diamond.