MAN ON A MISSION
After a nightmare first season at Chelsea, Ross Barkley is a…
SIGNING for the Premier League’s defending champions was supposed to be the stuff of dreams for Ross Barkley. Instead, last season turned into a perpetual nightmare.
Injuries left him on the outside looking in, while then Chelsea manager Antonio Conte placed no trust in the midfielder once hailed as the next Paul Gascoigne.
Barkley started just two games and was substituted in both, leaving Gareth Southgate with little choice but to leave him out of his World Cup squad.
He was lost. Chelsea did not feel like home, his compatriots thrived without him in Russia and Barkley knew he had to restart, dust himself off and go again.
Speaking for the first time on his experiences last season following his £15million move from boyhood club Everton, the 24-year-old is now a man on a mission — fitter than ever, raring to go, determined to return to the England set-up and show new Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri the real Ross Barkley.
‘It was tough,’ Barkley says of his first season at Stamford Bridge. ‘I didn’t see it as a waste of time. I got my body feeling better than it has ever felt before. I feel fit and strong. When you have a new manager, you have to impress.
‘The new manager has a different style of play. Going forward, getting close to the box, having shots, trying to create, being well drilled. It’s a new style.
‘I am really prepared and feel at home now. I feel like I have been here for a long time and get on well with all the lads.’
He spent the off-season building his fitness following his horrific hamstring injury last year. ‘To give myself a head start,’ he says.
The benefits are there to see. He has been one of the standout performers in pre-season, impressing against Perth Glory and Inter Milan. Next up in Dublin tonight are Arsenal, against whom Barkley endured a difficult debut.
Half an hour into that League Cup semi-final second leg, Willian was limping and Conte frantically searched for his substitute. Where was Barkley? Warming up along the Emirates Stadium touchline, still wearing his tracksuit, showing no urgency.
It infuriated Conte. That was Barkley’s first match in eight months, he had trained a handful of times under the Italian and the poor performance that followed was almost inevitable.
From then on, life under Conte was difficult. Now Sarri is in charge, the midfielder believes he has a chance to kick on. ‘To earn a regular spot at Chelsea is my main focus,’ Barkley says. ‘If I do well at Chelsea, the national team will take care of itself.
‘Chelsea is a massive club. You aim to win the Premier League and challenge for trophies, with the aim to win everything. It will take care of itself if you keep producing the goods.
‘So I am focusing on what I can do for my club, but one of my goals is to get back in the England set-up. I arrived with a long-term injury and have done everything perfectly. I will go into this season strong and ready.
‘I kept in touch with a few of the England lads in Russia and wished them well. I’ve been in one squad under Gareth Southgate and have seen the direction the team is going in.’
When Chelsea signed Barkley, they knew he would need nursing back to full fitness. The last time he managed a full 90 minutes was for Everton in April 2017.
They were prepared to be patient because they were convinced their new signing was a brilliant talent waiting to break out.
Barkley was once billed as a future world-beater. Roberto Martinez called him England’s answer to Michael Ballack.
He knows he has to prove himself all over again after a year as an outcast and repay Chelsea’s investment.
Yet the greatest players respond to setbacks and Barkley is embracing the challenge. Last season was the worst of his career to date, and he does not intend to endure another like it.