Ross Barkley: Once compared to Michael Ballack, now compared to Danny Drinkwater. What happened?

By Callum Castel-Nuovo

Ross Barkley was once dubbed a mixture of Michael Ballack and Paul Gascoine by Roberto Martinez, similar to Wayne Rooney by Frank Lampard and was also compared to Gascoine by Roy Hodgson.

After becoming a popular figure at Everton and earning a place in the 2014 England World Cup squad at just aged 20, things only appeared to get better for Barkley when he completed a £15m move to Chelsea in 2018. Fast forward to 2021 and the midfielder finds himself down the pecking order at Chelsea, having his squad number taken from him and offered to Championship side West Brom during the transfer window. But where did it all go wrong?

“I have played with some great players in my career, but I do not think I have ever seen a talent like Ross.” The words of Tim Cahill in 2011 when discussing 17-year-old Ross Barkley who was breaking into the Everton first team.

Barkley spent time on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United before returning to Roberto Martinez’s Everton for the 2013/14 season, scoring on his first game back. His first full season at Everton appeared to be a success and he managed to score 6 goals in 25 Premier League starts.

The midfielder continued to perform during the 2014/15 season, but it was the 2015/16 Premier League season that Barkley really cemented his place in the Everton team. A total of 48 appearances in all competitions and 22 goal contributions helped Barkley show the potential that professionals saw within him from an early age.

Under Ronald Koeman during the 2016/17 season, Barkley remained key to Everton and provided 13 goal contributions in the league whilst he was also solidified in the England team at this point.

Things were going very well for Barkley, and he only thought things could get better. Once Everton began their attempts to tie the midfielder down to a new contract, it became clear that he didn’t want to stay. Barkley had one year left on his contract and it was Chelsea that appeared keen to add the player to their ranks for £35m. Despite this, during the final hour of the transfer deadline day the move fell through.

Barkley did not feature for Everton during the 2017/18 season due to a hamstring injury and eventually got his move to Chelsea on 5 January 2018 for a fee of £15m and received a five-year contract worth around £110k a week.

Following his move to Chelsea, Barkley stated: “I had never thought about leaving Everton over the years, but it was getting to a point where I felt like I needed to make a move to improve as a player and playing with the level of players here like Eden Hazard will only make you better.”

“I am ambitious, and I want to win trophies and Chelsea are always known to win trophies and challenge for all the cups. That was purely my decision, to win things and challenge myself and play with world-class players.”

“I want to be regarded as a world-class midfielder. At the moment I have a lot of potential and a lot of world-class attributes and I want to showcase that at a massive club like Chelsea and win things and be regarded as a top-quality player.”

This has not gone exactly how the midfielder thought it would. During the 2015/16 Premier League season Barkley played 3,075 minutes for Everton yet since his arrival at Chelsea in 2018, he has played 3,879 Premier League minutes altogether. This combined with 13 goal contributions altogether at Chelsea over three years, Ross Barkley has not shown any form like he did during his time at Everton so far. Consequently, the Chelsea midfielder hasn’t made an appearance for England since 2019.

Despite playing under Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri and Frank Lampard at Chelsea, none of the afore mentioned have seen enough in Barkley to warrant him a lengthy run in the first team and the midfielder ended up moving to Aston Villa on loan for the 2020/21 season.

Barkley’s time at Villa started positively with two goals in his first two games during wins over Liverpool and Leicester, leaving fans hopeful that his Everton-esque form would return to the player. However, injury left Barkley side-lined throughout the Christmas period and he did not return in similar form. As well as further problems on the pitch, Barkley found himself in a bad light within the media with newspapers alleging that he had been asked to leave a hotel in London after drunken behaviour and arguments with diners and staff.

Having now returned to Chelsea at the age of 27, another Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel doesn’t appear to favour Barkley and the midfielder was offered to Aston Villa who declined. Barkley was then offered to Championship team West Brom for a loan move who also declined, most likely down to the size of his wages and finally, Barkley was offered to Inter Miami of the MLS who also declined the offer to take the Chelsea midfielder.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel stated: “He tried to go on loan again, to find a club, but it is not easy. The situation out there, the financial impact from corona to clubs abroad and clubs also within the country is huge. It's not easy to find clubs who are able to invest.”

“It's hard to see people struggling and struggling with the situation. But the quality that Ross brings to the pitch could help a lot of clubs in Europe.”

Despite this, Chelsea managed to send 22 players out on loan including Conor Gallagher and Billy Gilmour who are already arguably ahead of Barkley in the pecking order of midfielders. Once the two youngsters return with more development they will most likely be much further ahead of the Chelsea midfielder. Danny Drinkwater shares a similar story to Barkley and yet also managed to find a loan move to Reading in the Championship, gaining an opportunity that Barkley could not.

Ross Barkley may not have regrets about his move away from Everton as he did end up playing in Europe and winning trophies, but with a limited development opportunity and Everton beginning to rebuild under Rafa Benitez, Barkley finds himself as an outcast at Stamford Bridge rather than a key player at Goodison Park.