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By the end of the week Joe Williams is likely to have joined another club on loan.

Bolton, Hull, Birmingham and Bristol City have all registered their interest in taking the midfielder on a short-term deal.

It's now up to Williams to make a decision.

Had fortune favoured the 21-year-old earlier in the summer, rather than deserting him as it has done on a number of occasions, then he may have been firmly in the first-team mix at Everton and those suitors from the Championship may not have stood a chance.

Instead, Williams will now use the second tier of the English game, where excelled with Barnsley, to build up his fitness, experience and a body of work to put in front of Silva.

The Everton manager was impressed with Williams in the opening week of pre-season and wanted him to be part of the first-team squad's training camp in Austria.

But the Huyton-born player picked up a thigh problem which kept him out for the majority of the summer and so Silva had to move on.

For now, at least.

(Image: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

Because what his season at Oakwell, and his 38 appearances in all competitions, showed was that Williams has the potential to break into the Blues' first-team in a key position.

For Silva, there may be no position more important.

The No6.

Williams has moved through the ranks at Everton, winning under-18s and u-23s Premier League titles, as a box-to-box midfielder - more of a No8 - but Barnsley asked him to play deeper.

“If you had asked me that this time last year I would probably have said no,” David Unsworth said, on the prospect of Williams playing as a No6.

“He was all-action, No8, box-to-box because he has incredible endurance but last year for Barnsley he was asked to sit in there and I went to watch four or five of his performances and they were top drawer, they were really mature and he did something I didn't know he was capable of by controlling a game, sitting there and so the answer to your question is: yes he can.”

Morgan Schneiderlin is the only player in the Everton squad who fits the profile, according to Silva, while it remains unclear how the manager plans to utilise loan signing Andre Gomes.

Williams, should he leave on a season long loan, could return next summer to a squad crying out for competition for Schneiderlin.

“He's a terrific player and I've been a big fan of Joe's from the moment he's been with us,” Unsworth added.

“He's been so unlucky, on two occasions with injuries, when he might have made his debut in the first-team.

“He had a great loan last year with Barnsley and then he had another little injury in pre-season which was so disappointing for him because he started off with the first-team squad and now he's going to have to build his blocks back up with performances for us.

“We'll see what happens by the end of the loan window and see if there's anything there that is attractive for him.”