14 minutes ago, startedwithglenn said:

I've always liked him and think with the right coach he would turn into a quality player.

I think Conte would get a lot out of him. I think Pochettino would be great for him as well.

Agree with this. He deff needs to buckle down but has bags of talent . Would benefit from playing with other top players

I hope he doesn't go to Spurs, I can see Poch getting the most out of him. There clearly is a great player in him, he just needs the right manager to get it out of him.

I wouldn't be against signing him if it's not expensive and at the very worst he'd be a squad player. I don't really see the harm.

I think he should stay where he is.

I think we should negotiate for him right up to midnight on the final transfer window day and then pour champagne all over our fax machine and leave Eversh*te to stew in their greedy arse pit of gluttony...!!

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Should probably go to City, pretty much everything they strive to sign. English. Attacking midfielder. Average.

if he's anything below 50m they won't sign him ha! 

Apparently he's agreed terms with Spurs and he's due to have his medical.

 

In other words, he's ours.

Needs to start making the right decision a bit more on the pitch. That will come he is young. Seems to get a bit of stick from the Evertonians from time to time. Maybe needs to be learned and appreciated a bit more. He is English. That is good. I would like him. But i would not go ott with the transfer fee though.

3 hours ago, doctorblue said:

I think we should negotiate for him right up to midnight on the final transfer window day and then pour champagne all over our fax machine and leave Eversh*te to stew in their greedy arse pit of gluttony...!!

Seriously, what's with the Everton hate? Seems extreme 

Barkley isnt good enough for us.

Hes no better than any of our CMs because hes not played there neough by Everton.

Hes no better than ay winger we have because hes not a winger but has played wide for Everton.

He'd be our 3rd best #10, which is his natural position I feel but we dont play with a #10 anymore.

He cant play WB at all.

So in short, theres nowhere currently for Barkley to play in our system, I also think hes worth about 25m with only 12months n his contract left.

37 minutes ago, Delnino said:

Barkley isnt good enough for us.

Hes no better than any of our CMs because hes not played there neough by Everton.

Hes no better than ay winger we have because hes not a winger but has played wide for Everton.

He'd be our 3rd best #10, which is his natural position I feel but we dont play with a #10 anymore.

He cant play WB at all.

So in short, theres nowhere currently for Barkley to play in our system, I also think hes worth about 25m with only 12months n his contract left.

I agree. Every once in a blue moon he looks decent or scores a worldy, but far too inconsistent for a top team and I don't see better coaches getting any more out of him than we've seen up to now. As a squad option, I would prefer Oxlade-Chamberlain who is the same age, but could offer us a whole lot more.

 

I agree on Ox-Chamberlain, hes a better winger and wants to play CM and has played limited amounts of footbal as a WB. If we were after either, I'd prefer him.

In the old 4-2-3-1/4-3-3, Barkley as a #8 or #10 would have been ideal but ina 3-4-3, hes got no business starting in any of the available roles.

The main issue is both will want to play every game and neither are better than any of the players we have in our best,fully fit starting XI and in a WC year , I cant see Ox-Cham swapping Arsenals bench for ours and I cant see Barkley sitting on the bench either.

I'm pretty sure this is all agent's talk. The guy is after 150k a week and regular football, he won't get getting that anywhere in the PL with his skill set.

His age and stats are almost exactly the same as Super Frank when we bought him.

I'm not saying he will be the player Frank was but I reckon he's worth a punt. Maybe the bigger stage we offer could  really bring out the quality I feel he possesses.

On 7/27/2017 at 16:39, Nibs said:

I agree. Every once in a blue moon he looks decent or scores a worldy, but far too inconsistent for a top team and I don't see better coaches getting any more out of him than we've seen up to now. As a squad option, I would prefer Oxlade-Chamberlain who is the same age, but could offer us a whole lot more.

 

I disagree. Ox may be a more versatile, hardworking and consistent but I think Barkley is more naturally gifted of the two. I think his "ceiling" is higher and he can turn into a special player, if he applies himself and gets into the right team with the right manager.

Now I'm not saying we should necessarily go for Barkley and a player like Ox may be more of use to us at this point, but that's just my feeling on those two players.

Overhyped English player. Flashes every now and then. That's about it. Skip.

Edited July 31, 20178 yr by Jus4abit

Rather we play Boga and Musonda.

I think this is our most likely signing, Spurs can't offer then same wages that we will offer him.

Levy is clearly waiting till the last minute to pick him up on the cheap...if we want him then bang in a £25-30m bid and get on with it...personally I'm not a fan even though he ticks the boxes of age, HG and attacking midfielder...

 

He clearly has the talent but he really needs to be consistent.

If he can't be a key player at Everton where he can get the games and be aloud to make a few mistakes how would he ever get into the Chelsea team.

I am a fan of him on the right day. But I can't see him making it. He should concentrate on developing at a team where he can play. He can't even get ahead of a perminantly injured Jack Wilshire for England.

Actually now ive said it come to think of it maybe Jack Wilshire would be a better option. Probably the same money.  If he ever shakes off the injuries. Burnout medical team do have a brilliant track record

Barkley rumours have gathered apace this morning...they're saying that Eversh*te have dropped their demands for him down to £30m...reckon £25m is about right...

Edited August 2, 20178 yr by doctorblue

If it's comes down to between Drinkwater and Barkley, I will take the chance with Barkley. I don't think he's a great option, but given how much troubles we had buying the players we want, we may just settle for him before the deadline.

We are obviously trying to fit the HG quota and i am afraid teams will rip us off as they know we will pay over the odds. From the given option i'd take Ox as he can fit in two positions adding depth. Barkley obviously because he is only 23 and he can improve, but i don't see him getting a starting spot. Drinkwater is a decent option for rotation but nothing more i believe. 

Edited August 2, 20178 yr by TrueBlueBIH

A couple of years ago, there were loads of posters on here desperate for us to get hold of Barkley now it seems most would treat it with disappointment. It says two things to me

1) He hasn't fulfilled his potential

2) We are oh so easily seduced by those fancy names from abroad who we see mostly in highlights packages but have never head of. I my self and me for example have not seen much more then maybe 5 games of Bakyayoko. .

I for one am quite excited about this signing, the fact is the potential was there in the first place, but lets face it he's a big fish in a small pound and there isn't room to grow. He needs to be around better players with the pressure to be on his game week in week out. 

 

Lets try this on for a moment. We get in our Tardis (all the contributes to this thread, its bigger on the inside) and we transport the forum back in time to 2001. Everyone get's a memory wipe, you can't see the future. But you have magically and mystically got access to this forum (it's a time lord thing, best not to ask to many questions about it) We have been reading headlines for months linking us with giovanni van bronckhorst - pretty exciting, this is the player that might finally help us break in to that top 4!! The all of a sudden we get a text from out mate:

Chelsea have signed Frank Lamapard from West ham for 11 million pound...

huh? Lampard? Can't be right? do you mean Joe cole? nope, lampard

Surly you mean Carrick...

No lampard...

We race home after work, wind up that 56K modem and listen to the beep bbaaa booopp and then finally that great sound that indicates on this occasion you will get to use the internet. We load skysports new... sit and wait, sit and wait, sit and wait... finally the screen resolves and there it is bright as anything Frank Lamaprd 11 million... 

 

Don't know about you guys but i remember a distinct feeling of disappointment, sure lamps was steady enough but he wasn't anything special, he wasn't going to take us to the next level.

 

Now be really honest with you're self... you have the forum in front of you, the news has just broken.... what do you post? my guess is its probably at least as bad as many of the posts here, maybe worse. 

 

I would say Barkley actually looks better then Lamps when he arrived. And yes one does not grantee the other, it's much harder now to break in to our team and we are operating on another level. But let's not forget, frank had a huge hand it taking us to that level and he is arguably our greatest ever player... no one would have seen that coming when we all trashed him n the Theshedend forum (that didn't exist) in 2001.... 

If I had to choose between Barkley and Drinkwater, I'd go barkley, but I think we'll end up with Drinkwater, the links to him seem to be a bit louder.

I think bringing in Barkley would be sensible from our part. He's talented, english and has his best years ahead of him. Bringing in both Barkley and Ox would be good business for us. Barkley for me could be a better player than Oscar was for us and having him compete with Cesc for that position would create strong depth there.