EXCLUSIVE: Peter Reid sends Everton transfer warning after Bryan Robson and Glenn Hoddle comparison

Everton legend Paul Bracewell celebrates his 60th birthday today but Peter Reid, his partner in the Blues engine room reckons that a player who he believes operated at the same level as the likes of the more-celebrated Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle and Ray Wilkins doesn’t get the credit he deserves beyond the confines of Goodison Park. Signed from Sunderland for £250,000 in May 1984, Bracewell soon established himself at the heartbeat of Everton’s most-successful side and within 12 months, he had won both the League Championship and European Cup-Winners’ Cup.

Three England caps followed in 1985 and Bracewell looked like he might force his way into Bobby Robson’s plans for the World Cup finals the following summer. However, while the Everton quartet of Gary Lineker, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens and Reid all boarded the plane to Mexico, Bracewell, still only 23, had been seen out the season in agony since limping off at St James’ Park on New Year’s Day.

After X-rays proved inconclusive, Bracewell soldiered on, playing in 38 First Division matches that term but his bravery came at great cost. Eventually, the problem was traced to a piece of loose bone but after playing in the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in the 1986 FA Cup final, Bracewell wouldn’t pull on the royal blue jersey again for more than 18 months.

Despite making just two starts in two years, Bracewell finally re-established himself as a regular in the Everton midfield in the second half of the 1988/89 season but with Colin Harvey now reshaping the side, he went back to Sunderland after more Wembley heartbreak when the Blues were beaten 3-2 by their neighbours in the 1989 FA Cup final (having also lost 1-0 to Manchester United in 1985, the Heswall-born player who was in