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Spraying champagne, booming music blaring and triumphant chanting signalled there was a title party going on in the home dressing room at Goodison last night.

Despite the “never nice” feeling of losing a derby, Everton’s under-23s still had reason to celebrate as they were officially crowned as the best side in Premier League 2.

A core group of players, who have travelled through the Blues’ Academy system together, mixed with new arrivals as well as senior pros in exile and played in the image of their impressive young manager.

It was a championship winning concoction as David Unsworth’s side marked a turnaround from a shave with relegation three years earlier by winning the league.

But even the world below the Premier League is fast-paced and as Unsworth grappled with his disappointment of losing to Liverpool and searing pride at winning the league, he admitted that the wheels of change were already in motion for one of the most successful Everton Academy sides in recent years.

“Conversations are already taking place,” he said.

“John Ebbrell and I will sit down with all of the team at the end of the season, we’ll tick over for now while the first-team are still playing in case anyone needs to be involved.

“Decisions have already been made on the squad and, unfortunately, the boys who aren’t going to be kept have been told already.

“But the majority are being retained and we’ll sort that out over the summer.”

“We’ll look at what we’ve got in pre-season, we’ll all stay together and then will wait and see what type of offers we get loan-wise,” he added.

“Not all of them can go out and we do have our own targets that we’ll pursue over the summer and see if we get them.

“So, we’ll see what we’ve got at the end of pre-season.”

A list including Sam Byrne, Russell Griffiths and Mateusz Hewelt are out of contract this summer.

The Football League is expected to come calling for versatile full-back Gethin Jones , whose deal is running out, while Brighton - who have secured their promotion to the top flight - tried to sign Courtney Duffus in January and may move for the striker again if no new contract is offered.

Players such as Calum Dyson, Nathan Broadhead and Calum Dyson are expected to earn new deals.

Jonjoe Kenny will lead a group of players in being fully promoted to Ronald Koeman’s first-team that could also include Joe Williams and Liam Walsh while Dominic Calvert-Lewin has signed a new deal to confirm his speedy rise from u-23s level.

The returning Callum Connolly will be pushing to impress Koeman, Kieran Dowell will hope a loan move in the first-half of the season can help him do similar while Antony Evans, fresh from a loan at Morecambe, will form part of a refreshed squad at Unsworth’s disposal.

Harry Charsley, the team’s second top scorer, wants to experience the ‘man’s world’ of the Football League to accelerate his progress while Oumar Niasse, who plundered eight goals before leaving for Hull City, will be sold by Everton this summer.

Mason Holgate and Matty Pennington will be in Koeman’s thinking as he pieces together his squad for next term, Mo Besic - who has played for the u-23s in the run-in - has been forced to hit the re-set button after injury while Tyias Browning comes back after a loan spell aiming to get a proper season under his belt and will likely straddle the two squads.

The u-23s goal-burden will be on the rapidly improving Bassala Sambou and the new signings Everton are targeting.

“It’s tougher next season because the core of this group probably won’t be with us,” Unsworth said.

“I’d like to think three or four will be in the first-team squad, if not then they will be out on loan in the Championship.

“So you’re having to start again, which is fine, and the likes of Bassala, Beni Baningime, Morgan Feeney, they’ll be the new core next year, with others as well.

“If we get the targets we want then that will help form a new group.”

Targets are understood to include a new goalkeeper, Sheffield Wednesday striker George Hirst and defender Lewis Gibson on Newcastle United.

Anton Donkor, whose loan from Wolfsburg was cut short by injury, is expected to return while Jose Baxter comes back to the club this summer, on a shot at redemption.

Only a couple of u-18s players are set to be promoted to the higher age group with Alex Denny and Fraser Hornby among the leading candidates.

Unsworth says the first-team’s Europa League commitments will potentially have an impact on players available to him, as well.

“The first-team will be in Europe so may have to carry a bigger squad and the knock-on effect of that is they might get games with us and so more younger lads may then go out on loan,” he said.

“So what you’re always trying to do is balance the number of players you’ve got because what you don’t want for any under-23s player is not playing any minutes.”