Youngsters ready to step up?

Jarrad Branthwaite and Kyle John have been training with Everton’s first team this week after catching the eye of Carlo Ancelotti, according to the Liverpool Echo.

Since a veteran Italian returned to English shores in December, a number of young Toffees talents have been playing the best football of their career.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin now looks like a complete centre-forward, adding goals to his terrific work-rate, rapid pace and incredible leap, while Mason Holgate has been a ball-playing revelation at centre-half.

Both Calvert-Lewin and Holgate were promoted to Everton’s senior side after impressing for David Unsworth at U23 level and it seems that Branthwaite and John, two teenagers who are yet to make thier senior bows in royal blue, could be about to follow in their footsteps.

"[Branthwaite] trained with the first team in that game (a recent behind-closed doors friendly),” Unsworth admitted..

“The manager wanted to have a look at him so he trained with Kyle John in that game, and they'll be training with the first team (this week).”

The classy Branthwaite, who has been compared to Michael Carrick and Declan Rice by his former Carlisle United manager Chris Beech, joined Everton in a £1 million deal last month after attracting the interest of countless clubs both north and south of the border.

John, meanwhile, is a 19-year-old right-back who signed his first professional contract with the Merseyside giants in 2019. Ancelotti’s apparent admiration for a Chester-born defender will raise further questions about the future of fellow right-sider Jonjoe Kenny, who Schalke would love to sign on a permanent basis in the summer.