Everton have confirmed today that Leighton Baines has returned to the club to take up a new role, along with David Unsworth.

Both Unsworth and Baines are arguably two of the finest defenders in Everton’s history, and they are taking on new, prominent roles at the Club’s USM Finch Farm training headquarters.

The Toffees have made ‘exciting’ changes to the club’s player development structure where Unsworth has become the club’s new Director of Academy.

Baines, who retired at the end of last season, re-joins the club in a new coaching role.

Unsworth will take on his new position whilst continuing as manager of the Club’s Under-23s.

The additional role for Unsworth will allow him to bring all of the teams below the senior men’s squad into one management structure. As a result, it will provide a smooth pathway through the Academy and into the First team. 

Many Everton fans are thrilled with the latest update for the club and have expressed their reaction on social networking site Twitter. Here are some of the selected tweets:

https://twitter.com/GovEFC/status/1304435199443427332s=20

https://twitter.com/rmplightpower/status/1304437699038896129s=20

So happy to hear this news about Baines, he'll do amazing in this role