Jarrad Branthwaite return sends strong message to nervous Everton supporters

Following a week of celebrities’ sons towering over their famous fathers catching the public’s attention, it was time for Everton’s man mountain Jarrad Branthwaite to start imposing himself on the Premier League again. His return to the starting line-up sent out a strong message of reassurance to any twitchy Blues who have been concerned by the team’s start to the season.

A family snap showing Take That’s Gary Barlow with his wife and children had fans shocked by how much taller son Daniel is than his musician dad and prompted a series of memes, including a post on X from Aldi Stores showing an enormous shopping trolly with the caption: “Gary Barlow’s son popping in for a few bits.”

Everything is relative of course and it turned out that at 6ft 2in, Barlow junior is comparable in height to Jordan Pickford, a goalkeeper who often faces bizarre body shaming jibes for supposedly being small (he’s listed at 6ft 1in but that’s this correspondent’s height and unless I’m shrinking in my old age, he seemed taller when I looked him in the eye during an interview at the London Stadium on Saturday evening).

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For the record, his old man, who penned Back For Good among 13 UK number one singles to date, stands at 5ft 7in, which is about the same as Idrissa Gueye.

That all begs the question, just how small is Take That’s most diminutive member, Mark Owen? Whatever the answer, he’d probably fit in Branthwaite’s back pocket, which is where Michail Antonio spent most of Saturday afternoon again when up against ‘The Carlisle Kaiser’ before he got hooked.

While Britain was gripped by captioning silly pictures referring to Barlow’s son though, 18-year-old Barron Trump, the youngest child of US President elect Donald Trump, seems to have flown under the radar somewhat, despite being more in the Lacina Traore height category. For the record fact fans, in 1892/93: Goodison Park’s first season, Grover Cleveland became the first US President re-elected for a non-consecutive second term while in 2024/25: Goodison Park’s last season, Trump has become only the second US President re-elected for a non-consecutive second term.

Coincidence? Perhaps it’s a case of “Make Everton great again?”

Despite Kevin Sheedy, the most educated left peg in the Blues’ history popping into the ECHO this week to record his episode of Goodison Park: My Home and recall the glory days, we might still have a while to go on that score, but Branthwaite’s return produced a distinct air of authority to the side.

Unlike Trump, who greeted his victory over Kamala Harris with a string of platitudes, including a promise of a new “Golden Age” for the United States, nobody is expecting this to be a vintage season for Everton. However, in Goodison Park’s historic final campaign when all those with the Blues’ best interests at heart just want to avoid any unnecessary drama, it’s clear that when Sean Dyche’s best team is on the pitch, this side is much better than being in the relegation fodder category.

As Pat Nevin told the ECHO, Branthwaite is the best young centre-half in European football and the 22-year-old wasted no time in demonstrating that again in what was his first away start for the Blues since they went to Arsenal on the final day of 2023/24, the season in which he had become Everton’s breakthrough star. On that afternoon, club captain Seamus Coleman, who like Nevin is no hysterical commentator, conceded: “you can’t really hide talent like that for long,” and Branthwaite’s immense ability was back on full display in the capital again.

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Comfortable in possession, he looked effortless as he strode out of defence and up the field with the ball at his feet and when dealing with opposition attackers, his impressive recovery pace and an astute reading of the game that is improving all the time, ensured he was a formidable barrier to penetrate. It's already been observed that his return also made those either side of him, Vitalii Mykolenko and James Tarkowski, look better too as they upped their games.

Everton haven’t picked up as many points as most of us would have liked or expected so far this term. And, while that has understandably proven concerning for some given the team’s supposed ‘easy’ start in terms of fixtures and difficult matches on the horizon in December, the Premier League is rarely so predictable. With Branthwaite – a player who Goodison Park chiefs quite rightly base their valuation around the £80million fee that Manchester United paid for Harry Maguire in 2019, the £75million Chelsea paid for Wesley Fofana in 2022 and the £77million Manchester City paid for Josko Gvardiol in 2023 – back in the side, they are now a different proposition.

After all, this is the same Blues outfit that would have finished level on points with 11th place Brighton & Hove Albion last season in terms of on-the-field performance and a team that would be in the top half of the Premier League over the last 38 matches.

Penny-pinching Jim Ratcliffe, the man trying to get others to foot the bill of over a billion pounds to rebuild Old Trafford might not realise Branthwaite’s true worth given the paucity of Man United’s brace of derisory offers over the summer, but Evertonians certainly do.