Ross Barkley signs for Chelsea

[wooderz]

Jody Morris? I honestly have no idea what happened to him, I just remember him being sung up as the next superhero player, only to end up getting caught up in a ton of controversy and then just vanished.

He's Franks assistant at Derby now isn't he?

 

[DJS]

Jody Morris? I honestly have no idea what happened to him, I just remember him being sung up as the next superhero player, only to end up getting caught up in a ton of controversy and then just vanished.

Wasn't he banished to Leeds United?

 

[Marty]

He's Franks assistant at Derby now isn't he?

Yeah he left Chelsea U18s for that job. By all accounts very highly rated at the Chelsea setup.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Yeah he left Chelsea U18s for that job. By all accounts very highly rated at the Chelsea setup.

He knows a guy who can get cheap cocaine?

 

[EJWTartanSpur]

He knows a guy who can get cheap cocaine?

 

[Mullers]

Like Jack Rodwell and Francis Jeffers.

Forgot all about Jack Rodwell, Sunderland are paying him 70k a week, crazy.

 

[spursfan77]

Hard to have much sympathy when players chase the money

Ross Barkley and Baba Rahman: A tale of two Chelsea outcasts​

There was a moment earlier this summer when Thomas Tuchel reached a breaking point. He and his coaching staff had convened ahead of the return of the last wave of players from their summer breaks and, totting up the numbers, realised they would have 42 senior players cluttering up the first-team pitch at Cobham the next day — an amount that would basically leave training unmanageable.

“This is impossible,” offered the head coach. “Just not possible.”

Such tends to be life at Chelsea during summer as the senior squad is temporarily bloated by players who, in truth, have little to no future at the club. The weeks since have seen money raised through sales and others moved on temporarily with the usual flurry of contract extensions and season-long loans. At last count, Chelsea had dispatched 21 first-team players out on one-year stints elsewhere.

Amid the sprinkling of academy graduates, they include big-money blasts from the past — personnel signed during the tenures of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri who have simply never settled or whose potential was never properly tapped. Plenty are throwbacks to what feels like a bygone age.

The Athletic spent Saturday afternoon watching two of Chelsea’s forgotten men.

One actually made the match-day squad for the European champions as they ran out 3-0 winners against Aston Villa, although he did not make it into the pitch and his career remains in limbo. The other has not represented the first team at Stamford Bridge for over five years. One suspects he never will again.

This is a very modern tale of two Chelsea outcasts.

It is around half an hour to kick-off against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge and Ross Barkley’s name has just been read out over the tannoy to barely a murmur of acknowledgement from the home crowd.

He is just one among nine on the crammed substitutes’ bench. If there is any ripple of surprise in the ground, it is born of the fact he is involved at all.

Barkley, after all, has become another of this club’s forgotten men.

The now 27-year-old, once tipped to be the next Paul Gascoigne, is going through some basic pre-match passing drills with Ben Chilwell, a close friend, away from the main group. It is nearly a year to the day since Barkley last saw any game action in a Chelsea shirt, scoring in a 6-0 rout of Barnsley in the Carabao Cup under Frank Lampard last season.

He has counted this afternoon’s opponents, Villa, as team-mates more recently, after spending the remainder of last season on loan in Birmingham even if that stint, despite a bright start, rather fizzled out.

The visiting supporters in the Shed End are indifferent to his presence on the bench. They had initially revelled in his arrival at Villa, rejoicing as he scored on debut in the 7-2 victory against Liverpool and followed it up with the last-minute winner at Leicester in their next match, only to be underwhelmed by his contribution by the spring.

The locals’ lack of enthusiasm at his inclusion in the match-day squad owes more to the 86 inconsistent displays he has put in for Chelsea since joining from Everton for £15 million in January 2018.

Until a few days ago, the 33-cap England international did not even have a Chelsea squad number.

He had been consigned to the loan group, a collection of team-mates available for moves, and scored a hat-trick against non-League Weymouth in a selection made up of first-teamers lacking match fitness and those expected to leave. He lost his No 8 shirt to Mateo Kovacic, who previously wore No 17. The award of No 18 when squad lists were submitted to the Premier League and UEFA last week felt like an afterthought. Or, at best, a desire to bolster the Chelsea party’s homegrown contingent with those who had not been shipped out.

Head coach Tuchel had hardly given Barkley much cause for optimism as to his role at the club in the pre-match press conference, either. “Normally you expect somebody who goes on loan from Chelsea to Aston Villa to be the main guy at Villa,” he said on Friday. “Then he comes back and takes the next steps. This has not happened, so maybe there is a long way to go.

“He can train with this group at the same level. But this is not enough. We need to wait and have patience. I don’t know where it ends.”

In that context, it should actually be considered a positive that Barkley is involved at all against Villa.

Granted, there are mitigating circumstances with N’Golo Kante, Reece Jamesand Christian Pulisic all unavailable, but at least he is being given some unexpected hope of first-team football.

Efforts had been made to try to find him a club to spend 2021-22 on loan with. Talks with Burnley and Championship side West Bromwich Albion had not progressed very far. Placing a player who earns around £120,000-a-week and who had lost his role in the starting line-up at Villa by the end of last season is no easy feat.

The Athletic understands Chelsea raised the possibility of a move earlier this year with Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer side co-owned by David Beckham, only to be told there was no interest in Barkley on the other side of the Atlantic.

All of which appeared to have left a player who scored twice while earning his most recent England cap, against Bulgaria in a European Championship qualifier in October 2019, in limbo.

Yet, where Rahman and Drinkwater have been ushered away, Barkley is retained and appears to be cherishing the minor involvement he still enjoys.

He flings himself into the warm-up alongside Chilwell – the pair are close off the pitch and members of a WhatsApp group titled The Avengers which also includes Jack Grealish, James Maddison, John McGinn and Dele Alli – and there is a hug for former Villa team-mate Ezri Konsa during one lull before he breaks away to thump a dead-ball goalwards.

Unfortunately, despite having no goalkeeper to beat, the effort drifts wide and thuds into a television camera instead.

Barkley’s time at Chelsea has only ever fired in fits and starts. He has struggled for consistency, but there was a flurry of form under Maurizio Sarri, and another during Lampard’s only full season in charge. Yet rarely enough to demand regular first-team involvement. Tuchel pushed for the loan signing of Saul Niguez because, even with Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek technically at his disposal, he was “nervous to go into the season with three midfielders” in the squad, which felt damning.

Even Villa, a team who had celebrated his loan arrival as something of a coup, were content not to pursue a permanent deal by the end of his eight months with them. Theirs was a desire not to block the pathway for Jacob Ramsey, a talent at 20 years old and so busily effective in the first period at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

“He accepts the situation that it was not an over-performance from him at Aston Villa, so he cannot demand that we rely on him as the top midfielder in the next season,” said Tuchel. “All I say is that, for example, with him, and with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, I’m super-happy.

“We had the in-house game here and the two did fantastic. They trained very, very well despite their personal situations, which is maybe sometimes not the nicest one to have as a competitor: as a boy who has dreams, high hopes and loves his sport. (Barkley) does not have to love the situation, but he needs to accept it in a positive way. This is what I feel from him and, hopefully, he can keep this spirit up.”

There was no sign of sulking on Saturday.

As Jorginho readies himself to replace debutant Saul at the interval, with the home side leading 1-0 but hardly in control, there are words of encouragement for the Italy international as he prepares to enter the fray. Once the win is complete, Barkley breaks away from his post-match work-out with the other unused substitutes, Andreas Christensen, Mason Mount and Chilwell, to clap hands in congratulation with Kovacic as he emerges to conduct media duties.

His exercises with Chilwell are the most intense. They aren’t going through the motions. There is no member of the backroom staff watching either of them, so one gets the impression it is their choice to put extra effort in, perhaps with the possibility of gaining some minutes against Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League group opener back here on Tuesday night.

Barring the onset of an injury crisis, this is probably as good as it will get for Barkley from now on in. He will be involved, but never integral. Maybe he can play a part in the Champions League group-stage campaign, or certainly the Carabao Cup when Villa visit again in the last 32 next Wednesday. Perhaps, if he is fit, healthy and available, he will attract new transfer interest from elsewhere in January.

His challenge now is to retain focus on the fringes and seize whatever chance presents itself.

But the suspicion lingers that, like colleague Rahman, this is a talent left rather meandering, yearning to belong. And with no long-term future at Chelsea.

Ross Barkley and Baba Rahman: A tale of two Chelsea outcasts

The suspicion lingers that for a number of players, there is talent left yearning to belong yet with no long-term future at Chelsea

theathletic.com

 

[Tucker]

Hard to have much sympathy when players chase the money

Ross Barkley and Baba Rahman: A tale of two Chelsea outcasts​

There was a moment earlier this summer when Thomas Tuchel reached a breaking point. He and his coaching staff had convened ahead of the return of the last wave of players from their summer breaks and, totting up the numbers, realised they would have 42 senior players cluttering up the first-team pitch at Cobham the next day — an amount that would basically leave training unmanageable.

“This is impossible,” offered the head coach. “Just not possible.”

Such tends to be life at Chelsea during summer as the senior squad is temporarily bloated by players who, in truth, have little to no future at the club. The weeks since have seen money raised through sales and others moved on temporarily with the usual flurry of contract extensions and season-long loans. At last count, Chelsea had dispatched 21 first-team players out on one-year stints elsewhere.

Amid the sprinkling of academy graduates, they include big-money blasts from the past — personnel signed during the tenures of Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri who have simply never settled or whose potential was never properly tapped. Plenty are throwbacks to what feels like a bygone age.

The Athletic spent Saturday afternoon watching two of Chelsea’s forgotten men.

One actually made the match-day squad for the European champions as they ran out 3-0 winners against Aston Villa, although he did not make it into the pitch and his career remains in limbo. The other has not represented the first team at Stamford Bridge for over five years. One suspects he never will again.

This is a very modern tale of two Chelsea outcasts.

It is around half an hour to kick-off against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge and Ross Barkley’s name has just been read out over the tannoy to barely a murmur of acknowledgement from the home crowd.

He is just one among nine on the crammed substitutes’ bench. If there is any ripple of surprise in the ground, it is born of the fact he is involved at all.

Barkley, after all, has become another of this club’s forgotten men.

The now 27-year-old, once tipped to be the next Paul Gascoigne, is going through some basic pre-match passing drills with Ben Chilwell, a close friend, away from the main group. It is nearly a year to the day since Barkley last saw any game action in a Chelsea shirt, scoring in a 6-0 rout of Barnsley in the Carabao Cup under Frank Lampard last season.

He has counted this afternoon’s opponents, Villa, as team-mates more recently, after spending the remainder of last season on loan in Birmingham even if that stint, despite a bright start, rather fizzled out.

The visiting supporters in the Shed End are indifferent to his presence on the bench. They had initially revelled in his arrival at Villa, rejoicing as he scored on debut in the 7-2 victory against Liverpool and followed it up with the last-minute winner at Leicester in their next match, only to be underwhelmed by his contribution by the spring.

The locals’ lack of enthusiasm at his inclusion in the match-day squad owes more to the 86 inconsistent displays he has put in for Chelsea since joining from Everton for £15 million in January 2018.

Until a few days ago, the 33-cap England international did not even have a Chelsea squad number.

He had been consigned to the loan group, a collection of team-mates available for moves, and scored a hat-trick against non-League Weymouth in a selection made up of first-teamers lacking match fitness and those expected to leave. He lost his No 8 shirt to Mateo Kovacic, who previously wore No 17. The award of No 18 when squad lists were submitted to the Premier League and UEFA last week felt like an afterthought. Or, at best, a desire to bolster the Chelsea party’s homegrown contingent with those who had not been shipped out.

Head coach Tuchel had hardly given Barkley much cause for optimism as to his role at the club in the pre-match press conference, either. “Normally you expect somebody who goes on loan from Chelsea to Aston Villa to be the main guy at Villa,” he said on Friday. “Then he comes back and takes the next steps. This has not happened, so maybe there is a long way to go.

“He can train with this group at the same level. But this is not enough. We need to wait and have patience. I don’t know where it ends.”

In that context, it should actually be considered a positive that Barkley is involved at all against Villa.

Granted, there are mitigating circumstances with N’Golo Kante, Reece Jamesand Christian Pulisic all unavailable, but at least he is being given some unexpected hope of first-team football.

Efforts had been made to try to find him a club to spend 2021-22 on loan with. Talks with Burnley and Championship side West Bromwich Albion had not progressed very far. Placing a player who earns around £120,000-a-week and who had lost his role in the starting line-up at Villa by the end of last season is no easy feat.

The Athletic understands Chelsea raised the possibility of a move earlier this year with Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer side co-owned by David Beckham, only to be told there was no interest in Barkley on the other side of the Atlantic.

All of which appeared to have left a player who scored twice while earning his most recent England cap, against Bulgaria in a European Championship qualifier in October 2019, in limbo.

Yet, where Rahman and Drinkwater have been ushered away, Barkley is retained and appears to be cherishing the minor involvement he still enjoys.

He flings himself into the warm-up alongside Chilwell – the pair are close off the pitch and members of a WhatsApp group titled The Avengers which also includes Jack Grealish, James Maddison, John McGinn and Dele Alli – and there is a hug for former Villa team-mate Ezri Konsa during one lull before he breaks away to thump a dead-ball goalwards.

Unfortunately, despite having no goalkeeper to beat, the effort drifts wide and thuds into a television camera instead.

Barkley’s time at Chelsea has only ever fired in fits and starts. He has struggled for consistency, but there was a flurry of form under Maurizio Sarri, and another during Lampard’s only full season in charge. Yet rarely enough to demand regular first-team involvement. Tuchel pushed for the loan signing of Saul Niguez because, even with Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek technically at his disposal, he was “nervous to go into the season with three midfielders” in the squad, which felt damning.

Even Villa, a team who had celebrated his loan arrival as something of a coup, were content not to pursue a permanent deal by the end of his eight months with them. Theirs was a desire not to block the pathway for Jacob Ramsey, a talent at 20 years old and so busily effective in the first period at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

“He accepts the situation that it was not an over-performance from him at Aston Villa, so he cannot demand that we rely on him as the top midfielder in the next season,” said Tuchel. “All I say is that, for example, with him, and with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, I’m super-happy.

“We had the in-house game here and the two did fantastic. They trained very, very well despite their personal situations, which is maybe sometimes not the nicest one to have as a competitor: as a boy who has dreams, high hopes and loves his sport. (Barkley) does not have to love the situation, but he needs to accept it in a positive way. This is what I feel from him and, hopefully, he can keep this spirit up.”

There was no sign of sulking on Saturday.

As Jorginho readies himself to replace debutant Saul at the interval, with the home side leading 1-0 but hardly in control, there are words of encouragement for the Italy international as he prepares to enter the fray. Once the win is complete, Barkley breaks away from his post-match work-out with the other unused substitutes, Andreas Christensen, Mason Mount and Chilwell, to clap hands in congratulation with Kovacic as he emerges to conduct media duties.

His exercises with Chilwell are the most intense. They aren’t going through the motions. There is no member of the backroom staff watching either of them, so one gets the impression it is their choice to put extra effort in, perhaps with the possibility of gaining some minutes against Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League group opener back here on Tuesday night.

Barring the onset of an injury crisis, this is probably as good as it will get for Barkley from now on in. He will be involved, but never integral. Maybe he can play a part in the Champions League group-stage campaign, or certainly the Carabao Cup when Villa visit again in the last 32 next Wednesday. Perhaps, if he is fit, healthy and available, he will attract new transfer interest from elsewhere in January.

His challenge now is to retain focus on the fringes and seize whatever chance presents itself.

But the suspicion lingers that, like colleague Rahman, this is a talent left rather meandering, yearning to belong. And with no long-term future at Chelsea.

Ross Barkley and Baba Rahman: A tale of two Chelsea outcasts

The suspicion lingers that for a number of players, there is talent left yearning to belong yet with no long-term future at Chelsea

theathletic.com

Like you say, it’s hard to have any sympathy for them. It’s easy to criticise them too, but I suppose at the end of the day, they’re professionals and they are getting paid a lot of money to fulfil their contracts at Chelsea. Barkley might not make many appearances for Chelsea this year, but he could still end up with a premier league winners medal, plus he’ll have earned far more than someone like John McGinn at Villa who’ll play almost every game.

I think it’s got to the point now that there needs to be a salary cap. Perhaps an overall cap, and then an even stricter one that applies if a player doesn’t make a certain number of appearances for the first team over 12 months (Exemptions can apply for under 21s, and injuries etc.)

Would stop the likes of Chelsea and City hoarding players.

 

[spursfan77]

Like you say, it’s hard to have any sympathy for them. It’s easy to criticise them too, but I suppose at the end of the day, they’re professionals and they are getting paid a lot of money to fulfil their contracts at Chelsea. Barkley might not make many appearances for Chelsea this year, but he could still end up with a premier league winners medal, plus he’ll have earned far more than someone like John McGinn at Villa who’ll play almost every game.

I think it’s got to the point now that there needs to be a salary cap. Perhaps an overall cap, and then an even stricter one that applies if a player doesn’t make a certain number of appearances for the first team over 12 months (Exemptions can apply for under 21s, and injuries etc.)

Would stop the likes of Chelsea and City hoarding players.

I thought there was meant to be new loan rules to stop them being able to loan out players of a certain age (or a limit anyway). Although I am not certain when that starts.

 

[tototoner]

I'd love to earn £120K a week for doing bugger all

 

[dontcallme]

I'd love to earn £120K a week for doing bugger all

And what would your response be to people saying you should go elsewhere for less money?

 

[Marty]

I thought there was meant to be new loan rules to stop them being able to loan out players of a certain age (or a limit anyway). Although I am not certain when that starts.

I believe it has already started, a PL club can loan out at most 8 over 21s but an unlimited number of U21s.

 

[Monkey boy]

I'd love to earn £120K a week for doing bugger all

Id love to earn £120k by being a professional footballer too.

 

[Hoopspur]

Sounds like he (and Chilwell) are putting the effort it there. I don’t feel especially sorry for him but it sounds as if he is trying. Of course a club with a new manager will have their own favourites so it’s to Barkley to force his way back in. He does have the talent to still make it. Talent and effort and age still on his side (just). We have a midfielder with 2 of the 3 attributes above earning 200k per week! I think I know who is the crook.

 

[WalkerboyUK]

Sounds like he (and Chilwell) are putting the effort it there. I don’t feel especially sorry for him but it sounds as if he is trying. Of course a club with a new manager will have their own favourites so it’s to Barkley to force his way back in. He does have the talent to still make it. Talent and effort and age still on his side (just). We have a midfielder with 2 of the 3 attributes above earning 200k per week! I think I know who is the crook.

This is the problem with the modern game, where clubs bring in a new manager every 18-24 months,
Just as a player gets established a new manager comes in, has his own tactics, favourite players/new signings and very quickly someone like Barkley or Chilwell are down in the reserves.

 

[Tucker]

This is the problem with the modern game, where clubs bring in a new manager every 18-24 months,
Just as a player gets established a new manager comes in, has his own tactics, favourite players/new signings and very quickly someone like Barkley or Chilwell are down in the reserves.

At the same time, the likes of Chillwell and Barkley should know that Chelsea are a club that change managers like they change underwear, and players are frequently frozen out in favour of the latest shiny new toy. They know what they‘re getting into when they sign for these clubs.

 

[Hoopspur]

At the same time, the likes of Chillwell and Barkley should know that Chelsea are a club that change managers like they change underwear, and players are frequently frozen out in favour of the latest shiny new toy. They know what they‘re getting into when they sign for these clubs.

But both of these players you've mentioned were not 'latest whims' who we're just taking a chance on. I know the article wasn't about Chilwell but he cost £50m for goodness sakes. Barkley was only £15m because he was at the end of his contract. I recognise both of these players could easily be seduced by the words of Chelsea in their desire to have them playing for them. Also these guys are seemingly at the top of their game (or at least in their own brain), and have confidence in their own ability. It's Chelsea themselves that are the shites in their treating of their players , but then again their recent record of success shows a method.

I'll reiterate that I have no like of these players and especially Chelsea.

 

['O Zio]

I'd genuinely forgotten he existed until now.

As the op says though it's not really something I can have any sympathy about given that Chelsea have a history of this kind of thing it was airways likely to happen and he can't claim he didn't know that. Sounds like he's happy enough just collecting his inflated paycheck anyway so it is what it is

 

[Jamturk]

But both of these players you've mentioned were not 'latest whims' who we're just taking a chance on. I know the article wasn't about Chilwell but he cost £50m for goodness sakes. Barkley was only £15m because he was at the end of his contract. I recognise both of these players could easily be seduced by the words of Chelsea in their desire to have them playing for them. Also these guys are seemingly at the top of their game (or at least in their own brain), and have confidence in their own ability. It's Chelsea themselves that are the shites in their treating of their players , but then again their recent record of success shows a method.

I'll reiterate that I have no like of these players and especially Chelsea.

Clubs like Chelsea are depriving football and fans of real talent and potential joy, it needs to be addressed.

 

[Marty]

At the same time, the likes of Chillwell and Barkley should know that Chelsea are a club that change managers like they change underwear, and players are frequently frozen out in favour of the latest shiny new toy. They know what they‘re getting into when they sign for these clubs.

Chilwell is a slightly different case to Barkley because he was only left out of the first game of the season through injury and his late return from the Euros. Alonso got his chance, scored a free kick and has played well enough to keep his place.

Chilwell will certainly get plenty of chances to restake his claim. The same cannot be said of Barkley.