Everton boast something of a knack for developing English football's finest talents, welcoming exciting youngsters onto the scene season after season.
The Premier League club's senior set-up has not quite matched the prosperity of its youth cluster across recent years, with Everton spending the past two campaigns battling against relegation and now poised for further travails moored in the lower echelon of the division after picking up just one point from five matches so far this term.
Sean Dyche certainly has his work cut out for him, with the Toffees finishing the 2022/23 campaign as the division's second-lowest scorers and blanking across each defeat since the summer.
The bright spark on the blue half of Merseyside comes in the form of Jarrad Branthwaite, who has returned to his parent club after excelling out on loan in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven last year.
The 21-year-old has been praised for his "absolutely fantastic" displays in Everton's defence by some in the media, and looks to be one of the brightest stars to have emerged at Goodison Park over recent years, having already attracted attention from the likes of Manchester United this year.
While not actually an Everton academy graduate, the Merseyside outfit did foster the rise of one John Stones, who is now considered one of the very best players in world football.
Why did Everton sell John Stones?
In 2013, Everton signed England U19 defender Stones from Barnsley for a fee in the region of £3m; he was 18-years-old, but already viewed as one of the country's most promising up-and-comers.
The 67-cap England international played 95 times for the Toffees across three campaigns before his precocious talents earned him a £47.5m transfer to Manchester City in 2016, where he remains, and thrives, to this day.
Having been sold by Ronald Koeman, Stones' departure left a gaping hole in the Blues' central defence, with 31-year-old veteran Ashley Williams swiftly joining as the replacement in an £11m move from Swansea City.
Williams was a solid defender who has performed well for many years for his Welsh outfit, but he did not find his feet at all with Everton and indeed languished for the club, earning £70k-per-week across two seasons but receiving criticism from journalist Ben Marlow, who said: "Thought he would be great for us but turned out to be a total liability. Awful defender."
This typified the woeful dealings of Everton owner Farhad Moshiri and co, with the money recuperated from Stones' sale not being efficiently injected back into the club, with the fans paying the price for the ineptitude to this day.
How much is John Stones worth now?
According to CIES Football Observatory, Stones is now valued at around £53m, which seems pretty appropriate for a first-class 29-year-old defender with three years left on his current deal.
This also means that Everton cashed in for a pretty decent amount, all things considered, for a player with bundles of talent but yearning for a future away from Goodison Park.
However, his incredible talents would have been perfect for an Everton side that has slid further and further into obscurity over the past few years, now teetering on the cusp of relegation from the Premier League for the very first time.
What are John Stones' best qualities?
Stones wasn't always in the limelight under Pep Guardiola's mastermind management, and actually spent more matches as an unused substitute across the 2021/22 Premier League season (13) than he did in the starting line-up (12).
Having been of a vested interest to West Ham United back in 2020, Stones has made the increments to his game and is now considered a ”world-class” player by the likes of YouTube Content Creator Steve McInerney.
Teammate Kyle Walker always knew of his prowess, saying back in 2017: "John is an unbelievable player. You don't quite appreciate him until you are playing alongside him. He rarely gets beat, he is great on the ball and he is very calm and level-headed."
Now one of the most dynamic players in the world, Stones' all-encompassing skill set has prompted Guardiola to field him in an array of roles, namely central defence, right-back and as a centre-back last term.
As per FBref, the £250k-per-week machine ranks among the top 10% of positional peers across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for goals, the top 8% for pass completion, the top 11% for progressive passes, the top 8% for progressive carries and the top 9% for successful take-ons per 90.
This level of dynamism in his craft is a rarity indeed, a transcendent player of immense proportions, lauded as "sensational" by pundit Jamie Carragher for his display in last season's FA Cup final against Manchester United, integral in aiding the Citizens secure a historic treble.
Stones' blistering success over the past few years has now situated him among the creme-de-la-creme in the game, with some even arguing that he is "the best" defender that the Premier League has to offer.
While his £47.5m price tag seemed rather exorbitant at the time, Stones has proved his worth with his multi-functional role under Guardiola's wing and his expansive skills and supreme technical ability, very much the prodigious talent those at Everton knew he was.
Selling him was a good financial deal for the Goodison Park side, but a crucial moment in the side's slump over the years, which still persists to this day.
There are surely many of an Everton persuasion who must rue the day his departure was granted; just imagine the impact he could have had if he'd been kept at the club and developed into the world-beating phenom that he now is.