Overview
- Journalist Fabrizio Romano reported on Saturday that Everton are preparing a formal proposal to pursue 20-year-old Ethan Wheatley from Manchester United.
- Local Everton coverage and club sources say talks are not advanced and that any initial plan may target Wheatley as an academy or development addition rather than an immediate first-team signing.
- Manchester United are understood to prefer sending Wheatley out on another loan rather than sanctioning a permanent sale at this stage.
- Wheatley is an academy graduate with England youth caps who is under contract until 2028 and has had three lower-league loans at Walsall, Northampton Town and Bradford City with a modest goals record.
- A final decision depends on Wheatley returning to United, meetings with his representatives and negotiation over deal structure such as loan terms, fees and buy-back or performance clauses that would shape his pathway to regular senior football.