Barkley starts to emerge as Chelsea’s heir to Lampard
When he signed, few thought the midfielder could take on the mantle of a club legend but he is now rising to the test
When Michael Emenalo was Chelsea’s technical director, he formulated a recruitment plan at the behest of the club’s owner Roman Abramovich: find a new spine to the team. Find a new English spine to replace Ashley Cole, John Terry and Frank Lampard. Create a new English spirit.
In fact Emenalo followed the Russian billionaire’s orders to the letter and direct replacements were earmarked. A new left-back? That would be Luke Shaw.
A new centre-half? That would be John Stones. A new goal-scoring midfielder? That would be Ross Barkley.
Bids were eventually made for all three, but only Barkley was signed. Last January, though, few were willing to believe he could be Lampard’s successor and even the £15million transfer fee it took to sign him appeared something of a risk.
Now, as Chelsea prepare to face Lampard’s Derby County in the last 16 of the Carabao Cup tomorrow evening, does it appear so farfetched?
It will be a night rightly dominated by Lampard’s return, especially as he has already impressed in his fledgling managerial career at Derby. Barkley may play, but it is no longer the case that his best hope of first-team appearances at Chelsea is in the League Cup. He is moving beyond that, as he confirmed with an authoritative performance in the defeat of Burnley. Now it is about sustaining that.
The 24-year-old – Barkley is 25 in early December – has shown glimpses in the past few weeks of the player he can be. The player that, maybe by now, he should be, even if he was always going to be weighed down by comparisons attached to him – not least that by Roberto Martinez, when he was Everton manager, who referred to him as “an amalgam of Paul Gascoigne and Michael Ballack”. Such is the lot of a rare precocious talent who everyone is desperate to succeed and fill a skills gap. No one doubts whether Barkley has the physical and technical attributes to be that rarity: a midfielder comfortable moving with the ball who can pick a pass and has an eye for goal. Another Lampard, in fact. The question is, and remains, can he apply it as consistently as Lampard did? The comparisons between the pair are interesting. Barkley and Lampard had played exactly the same number of senior games, 196, before they moved to Chelsea, with Lampard having scored nine more goals than Barkley’s 31 when the switch was made. Lampard joined from West Ham United in 2001, having come through their academy, and was a year younger than Barkley was when he joined Chelsea, having come through Everton’s academy. The feeling always persisted that, although Chelsea wanted Barkley, their then manager Antonio Conte was less enthusiastic about him. That was born out by the fact that last season Barkley played just 208 minutes and was an unused substitute in seven of the club’s last eight games. Injury was a significant problem while there was always the lingering accusation as to whether Barkley was working hard enough, was prepared to get himself fit enough and had the tactical nous to fit in at this level. Under Maurizio Sarri he is, game by game, dispelling those doubts and it was revealing that he admitted watching clips of Sarri’s Napoli to prepare for the Italian’s arrival at Chelsea. His maturity was also shown in the recent claim that he had not received the right level of coaching in the past, which was taken as a slight on Everton but was an honest admission that he had burst on the scene at 17 and not developed.
In the past three weeks Barkley has scored his first Chelsea goal, in the 3-0 win over Southampton, has started and done well in both of England’s Nations League matches, and has gone on to prosper with his club.
He scored a 96th-minute equaliser after coming off the bench in the 2-2 draw against Manchester United. He took that on against Burnley when he started ahead of Real Madrid loanee Mateo Kovacic, who had started the Europa League game a few days earlier. That suggested Barkley had moved up the pecking order, when some had predicted Kovacic’s arrival would marginalise him. Barkley has been the better player of late.
After the win Sarri suggested Barkley had provided evidence that he is the “complete” player, with a goal and two assists. That goal meant he was the first