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It is late July in 2017.

Everton's transfer business has been aggressive and expensive. Davy Klaassen , Jordan Pickford, Michael Keane, Sandro Ramirez and Wayne Rooney have already arrived at Goodison Park with Gylfi Sigurdsson and Nikola Vlasic to follow suit in the coming days.

The Blues splash out more than £125m under the stewardship of Ronald Koeman and Steve Walsh as the duo look to improve on the previous campaign's seventh place finish.

Supporters, of course, know how the rest of the tale unfolded with Koeman departing after just nine league games.

CLICK HERE for your LIVE Everton news and transfer rumours with Theo Squires

Walsh followed shortly after and his transfer history, in the newly-created director of football position, will go down as scatter-gun at best.

But to remain in that fateful summer for a moment longer and there is another story to be written.

One, Everton hope, that will have a much happier ending than the Gothic instalment of Koeman and Walsh.

Unsworth and Head of Under-23s recruitment Jamie Hoyland had made Newcastle starlet Lewis Gibson their top summer priority and eventually sealed a deal just days before the transfer deadline.

Josh Bowler, Boris Mathis, Dennis Adeniran and Nathangelo Markelo were also brought in but the defender's fee - which could rise to £6m - immediately caught the eye.

Gibson, who was 17 at the time, penned a three-year deal after Everton beat off competition from Manchester City, Tottenham and Southampton.

Almost two years later, he has continued to work patiently towards impressing senior bosses.

Despite seeing Koeman and Sam Allardyce depart during his short time at the club, one man has remained a constant.

“Lewis Gibson has been outstanding," Unsworth said towards the end of last season.

“He has got better and better and better and he is a natural born leader and he has been captain for the last couple of games.”

These words are not to be taken lightly.

Unsworth will have put much thought into the decision to hand a then 17-year-old the captain's armband. Not only for the responsibility shunted onto Gibson's young shoulders, but for the added spotlight that undoubtedly attracts.

The teenager, for his part, has shown in the past 12 months that he has the mentality of a warrior after two testing setbacks.

The new campaign, initially, did not go as planned.

Adam Jones discusses Richarlison's price tag in this weekend's Royal Blue column

Scheduled to travel with England U18s to China during the summer - less than a year after helping the U17 side lift the World Cup - Everton decided to send the teenager for surgery on a troublesome ankle to ensure his fitness for the following campaign.

It took until October for Gibson to return but in his first game back further disappointment struck as the defender looked to have suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage.

Devastated - and with club medics fearing the worst - Gibson received a small boost when results showed a dislocated knee and ligament damage to the opposite ankle that was operated on just months before.

But this still meant further surgery and further rehabilitation.

Less than six months later and Gibson has once more displayed his resolute character.

He has returned - after just three full training session with Unsworth's U23s - to spearhead the charge for Premier League 2 glory .

Richarlison reveals why Everton signed him and the big critics question he wants to answer HERE

In short, Everton have conceded one goal in six games since the defender returned to the side. Even more impressively, the Blues have not let one in when Morgan Feeney and Gibson have been paired together centrally during the last five games.

The impact he's had at such a tender age is not to be sneered at.

His deceptively strong defensive technique is matched with an eagerness to play out from the back. His left-foot has been hailed by Unsworth and he opened his account for England's youth side recently with a fine strike.

Gibson's form has not gone unnoticed at Finch Farm either. He has been invited by Marco Silva to train with the first-team in recent weeks following injuries to Phil Jagielka and Yerry Mina.

Insiders suggest he has held his own in a senior environment. But this has left Everton with a big decision to make over his future.

Unsworth and Hoyland put their faith in Gibson when they outlaid an initial £1m for his services but with one year remaining on his contract, top Championship clubs have already registered their interest in a loan move ahead of next season.

The defender admitted when he joined that he had left boyhood club Newcastle in an attempt to follow in the footsteps of the young stars already plying their trade at Goodison.

(Image: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

"Everton is a brilliant club and when the opportunity presented itself I wanted to be part of it," he said after signing.

"The reputation has long been there that Everton brings through young players.

"You only have to look at the likes of Tom Davies, Kieran Dowell, Jonjoe Kenny and several others who are battling for places to know this."

Davies and Kenny are first-team squad members while Dowell was allowed to join Sheffield United on loan in January.

Gibson hopes for a similar opportunity and it is understood he is keen to remain on Merseyside should the Toffees be able to offer him, at the very least, a pathway to the senior side.

Marcel Brands wants young and hungry players to supplement Silva's squad next season and this has been shown in training recently. Gibson, Feeney and Fraser Hornby have all been handed opportunities to impress with the first-team.

HERE is Phil Kirkbride's latest on Everton's U23 stars and their contract status

But the Blues have further difficulties. England's U17 World Cup winning squad included the likes of Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

All have been handed opportunities this season while Arsenal's Emile Smith Rowe joined RB Leipzig on loan in the summer.

Everton's young stars are desperate for equivalent opportunities and Gibson is no different.

Decisions on young players are likely to be made in the coming weeks but with Jagielka and Leighton Baines' future uncertain the starlet - who can operate at both centre-back and left-back - could well be an affordable alternative to the increasingly expensive transfer market.

Walsh and Koeman's reckless summer still leaves a sour taste in the mouth of everyone connected with Everton.

But Gibson's signing could well prove to be the bargain the Blues were searching for.