Everton’s showdown with Leicester City on Saturday is a potentially huge clash when it comes to the Blues attempts to move away from the Premier League relegation zone. But the game also pits the home side’s most valuable player Jarrad Branthwaite against the man who transformed him into one of the brightest defensive prospects in world football.

Before spending a season on loan at PSV Eindhoven in 2022/23, Branthwaite’s last act at Goodison Park was to be sent off for a professional foul on Brentford’s Ivan Toney and having subsequently been suspended for the 3-2 comeback win over Crystal Palace that confirmed the club’s top flight survival, he returned for the 5-1 thrashing at Arsenal on the final day of the campaign.

Branthwaite’s year in the Netherlands transformed his fledgling career though and having returned ‘Premier League ready’ in the summer of 2023, he was Everton’s breakthrough star of last season, winning his first England cap as a substitute in a 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina at St James’ Park on June 3. Manchester United, who had appointed the centre-back’s former PSV coach Ruud van Nistelrooy to then manager Erik ten Hag’s staff, subsequently came calling with a brace of bids but their offers of £35million plus add ons and then £45million plus add ons didn’t come close to Goodison Park chiefs’ valuation of the player.

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With the Dutch contingent now gone at Old Trafford and van Nistelrooy, who took on the role as interim boss after his compatriot’s sacking, also departing the club to take the reins at the Foxes after missing out on the top job to Ruben Amorim, Branthwaite it seems has had a lucky escape from a potentially toxic environment that could have hampered his progress. Despite the Red Devils having an eye-watering net spend of almost £400million under ten Hag – a figure second only to Chelsea among Premier League clubs across the period – Amorim has labelled his side the worst in United’s history.

Marcel Brands, the man who plucked Branthwaite from Carlisle United as a 17-year-old after just nine League Two matches for his home city club while director of football at Everton, before taking him on loan at PSV where he is now president, claims he always believed the centre-back could enjoy a rapid rise. Speaking in an exclusive interview to the ECHO last May, he said: “Jarrad has always had a huge talent and from day one when he first came into the club, he’s been impressing the other players and staff members.

“He had a very good loan spell with us at PSV so to see him do that is not a surprise to me. To be honest, I have never had any doubts about him. In principle he has everything to become one of the top defenders in the world.

“He’s tall, he’s good in the air, he will always score some goals while also being comfortable on the ball with both feet and fast. The only thing he has to improve now is his experience because he’s still very young but playing on a high level.

“It’s great to see him fulfilling his huge potential because he’s a great kid from a great family with good parents who support him in the right way. I’m very happy for him and also for Everton because he will be a very valuable player in the near future.

“Jarrad’s advantage is that he can play in different styles. He’s now very comfortable playing alongside James Tarkowski who is a player who suits the system that Everton are playing now.

“I think Jarrad can also play in a system like Arsenal or Manchester City with a lot of space behind him because he’s so fast and he’s reading the game quite well for such a young boy. I expect he will have a great, great future both on a national and maybe even international level.”

However, Branthwaite himself believes he returned to Everton as a much more-developed all-round player and much of that was down to the masterclass in attacking play he had to come up against in training against his coach Van Nistelrooy, who broke the 20-goal barrier in four of his five seasons in England with Manchester United.

He said: “As a striker Ruud knew what defenders didn’t like so he was always giving me little tips, about body positions and how to defend against different kind of strikers, which helped me massively. The whole experience matured me as a player, as a man as well and I came back a much better player than I had been 12 months previously.

“After games we’d go back to the training ground and look at the computers that we’d watch the games on. There would be little things about body shape with different strikers whether they were big ones or quick ones on the half-turn ready to go in behind.

“That’s something I’ve learned a lot and it’s definitely helped me coming back here because when you’re playing a high line you need to be ready to turn but also ready to go in and engage a striker. So it’s something that has definitely helped me.”

Things didn’t come easy for Branthwaite at first on the continent though and he admits that it was daily phone calls from Van Nistelrooy that convinced him he could turn things around after a difficult start. Recalling his time in the Eredivisie last March, he said: “It was massive – I think that’s where it all started. I went abroad and had new life experiences.

“I think it’s made me become more of a man and it enabled me to come back to the Premier League and play regularly after being abroad. Ruud was really good for me. I went over there and didn’t play as many games as I would have liked.

“It got to January and I was thinking of maybe going back to Everton and getting another loan or staying there for the second half of the season. But he was ringing me every day and promising I would get my chance.

“That’s what happened in the second half of the season. I played every game. I got the progression from the second half of that season and took it into this one.”