10:41

Jose Baxter is back at Everton

Not sure if it qualifies as a transfer, and it is not with a view to playing for Everton’s first team, but one of the more surprising moves of the window is Bill Kenwright’s offer of a one-year contract for Jose Baxter, who is currently serving a 12-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. Baxter remains the youngest player to have appeared for Everton, making his debut in August 2008 aged 16 years and 191 days, but almost nine years on he has squandered a once promising career and been working with his boyhood club’s community department while serving his ban.

Out of the blue, fittingly, the 24-year-old was told on Thursday he has a 12-month deal with Everton’s Under-23 squad when his ban expires in June. The idea, which came from the Everton chairman, is that Baxter gets his life and career back on course and hopefully lands a deal back in professional football. David Unsworth, the Under-23s coach, explained: “Jose will start with me and the Under-23s. We can play three older players so that is not an issue. Then it is up to him. It is important to say it will not be a first-team contract. He will be given the same opportunities as everyone else. If that means he moves on to a Championship club or a League One club later on, that will be down to Jose. We want to help because that is the sort of club we are. He is one of our own, but I have said to Jose, in no uncertain terms, that this is your last chance.”

Baxter rejected a contract at Everton in 2012 to seek regular first team football elsewhere, playing for Oldham Athletic and Sheffield United, and was given a five-month ban in 2015, suspended for three months, after testing positive for ecstasy.