Barkley finally fulfilling potential with Chelsea
One-time prodigy’s career is on the up even if Everton fans are still bitter over his transfer, writes Matt Law
Ross Barkley shares an agent with Eric Dier and knows the Tottenham Hotspur player well from their time together at Everton and England. So Barkley will not have to look too far if he wants to find out what pushed Dier, once an Everton youth, into hurdling an advertising board and several rows of seats to try to get to a Spurs fan who had got into an altercation with his brother last Wednesday.
Barkley will no doubt be able to sympathise with Dier, having become a target of Everton supporters since moving to Chelsea two years ago, and the incident will have been a reminder of what he could face when his former club visit Stamford Bridge today.
Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard experienced a similar scenario as a player after he left West Ham United in 2001 and has challenged 26-year-old Barkley to prove his point to his critics in the right way.
“I think he will handle it very well,” Lampard said. “Ross has been away from Everton for a couple of years and in the life of a footballer you understand that when you play against your old club, you’re going to get abuse. Ross is a really good-natured lad who wants to do well at his job. He’s very close to his family, who obviously still have roots up in Everton. I don’t think he will have a crazy reaction, I don’t think he’s that type, but he’s the type of lad who will want to do well against his old team.”
Barkley had six months remaining on his contract and had not played for seven months because of a hamstring injury when he joined Chelsea for £15million in January 2018, having turned down the same move for which
Everton would have received twice as much at the end of the previous transfer window.
It was the drop in price that angered some Everton supporters, including the mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, who wrote to Merseyside Police, the Football Association and the Premier League to demand an investigation into the transfer.
Anderson wrote: “At worst, it could be seen as a deliberate attempt to drive down a player’s value in the transfer market so as to benefit the player, his agent and the buying club.”
Merseyside Police threw out the allegation within a week, but the mud stuck with a large section of Everton supporters who believed that Barkley had wronged his boyhood club in trying to better himself and advance his career. Time has not been much of a healer, as Barkley found out on his first return to Goodison Park last March when he was greeted by loud chants of “one greedy b------” throughout Everton’s 2-0 win.
Barkley could have become the highest-paid player in Everton’s history and earns over £100,000 a week at Chelsea, but he wanted to play in the Champions League, win trophies and advance his international career, which did not look possible at Goodison two years ago.
He finished his first season at Chelsea on the substitutes’ bench in the FA Cup final victory over Manchester United and claimed a Europa League winners’ medal at the end of last term before making his Champions League debut against
Valencia last September. And, having been one of two players to have been taken to the 2016 European Championship and not played a minute while contracted to Everton, Barkley has become a regular starter for Gareth Southgate’s England team as a Chelsea player.
While the feeling may not be entirely mutual, Barkley’s affection for his old club was reaffirmed by the way in which he celebrated scoring for Chelsea in the FA Cup against Liverpool, which he later described as a “dream”.
The solo goal, just his third for Chelsea this season, was also a reminder of why Barkley once earned comparisons to Paul Gascoigne. “Ross will be searching for minutes to get consistency, to be able to do what he did against Liverpool,” Lampard said. “It’s in his powers. His shooting right and left foot is as good technically as I see on the training pitch. Also his ability to go past someone in advanced areas in midfield.”
It is perhaps an example of the way in which, as a youngster, Barkley was over-promoted and became the victim of unfair expectations that he was just 16 when he suffered a bad double leg break while on duty for England Under-19s.
Tim Cahill described the teenager as the most talented footballer he had ever worked with before he had even made his Everton first-team debut as a 17-year-old and not long afterwards Martin Keown predicted “he will be one of the best players we’ll ever see in this country”.
But Lampard dismissed any suggestion that Barkley’s career may be a disappointment, saying: “It’s not an easy thing when you see certain players getting that kind of pressure at 18 years of age or earlier.
“It’s very easy to make those easy, early conclusions on players, knowing there is a long route to go and everyone’s route is different, and what Ross can say is he’s playing games for a big club and that’s a success.”