London - Chelsea dikabarkan BBC pada Jumat (5/1/2018), telah sepakat dengan Everton untuk mendatangkan Ross Barkley pada Januari 2018. Kehadiran Barkley diharapkan bisa menjaga kedalaman skuat The Blues di lini tengah.
Sebelumnya, The Blues memang sempat menginginkan jasa Barkley. Chelsea mengirimkan tawaran untuk merekrut gelandang berusia 24 tahun itu pada hari terakhir bursa transfer musim panas 2017.
Akan tetapi, saat itu Barkley menolak untuk angkat kaki dari Everton. Padahal, masa depan Barkley tengah menjadi tanda tanya karena kontraknya yang berakhir pada 30 Juni 2018 tidak kunjung diperpanjang The Toffees.
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Saat itu, Barkley beralasan ingin fokus terhadap pemulihan cedera yang dia alami. Namun, petinggi Everton telah menyatakan siap kehilangan gelandang berusia 24 tahun itu.
Situasi tersebut membuat Barkley bersiap hengkang dari Goodison Park pada Januari 2018. Chelsea pun kembali mengajukan tawaran senilai 15 juta poundsterling (Rp 272 miliar) pada 1 Januari 2018, demi memboyong pemain 24 tahun itu ke Stamford Bridge.
Everton diberitakan menerima tawaran Chelsea tersebut. Alhasil, Barkley bakal menjalani tes medis sebagai syarat akhir sebelum bergabung dengan Eden Hazard dan kawan-kawan.
Apabila bergabung, Ross Barkley bakal melengkapi lini tengah Chelsea . Saat ini The Blues hanya memiliki empat gelandang berpengalaman yakni Cesc Fabregas, Danny Drinkwater, N'Golo Kante, dan Tiemoue Bakayoko.
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Chelsea have announced the signing of Ross Barkley from Everton in a deal understood to be worth £15m. The midfielder described the move as “unbelievable” and said one of his primary targets was to score more goals.
Chelsea went back for Barkley after a deadline-day move collapsed last summer. The clubs agreed a £35m fee and Barkley personal terms with the Premier League champions, only for the player to request more time to consider the deal as he recovered from a serious hamstring injury.
That delay has cost Barkley’s boyhood club £20m in transfer revenue, although Everton risked losing the England international for nothing in the summer and reluctantly accepted a cut-price move.
Barkley is out of contract at the end of the season and Everton’s manager, Sam Allardyce, admitted on Thursday the club was resigned to losing its homegrown talent, who has rejected offers to extend his stay.
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The 24-year-old, who has signed a five-and-a-half-year deal, told Chelsea’s website: “I’m overwhelmed, I’m looking forward to it and I’m really excited to get started. To be given a fresh start at a new club like Chelsea, it’s unbelievable for me. I’m looking forward to continuing where I left off at the end of last season and hoping to improve and add more goals to my game.”
Antonio Conte explained on Friday why he wanted to bring Barkley to Chelsea. “We are talking about an English player, a young player,” the manager said. “He has good prospects for Chelsea. I think the club decided for this investment also for his contract. I think this is a good opportunity for the club to buy this player. For sure he is a good prospect for Chelsea.”
Conte cautioned against expecting Barkley, who had not played a competitive match since May, to make an immediate impact. “Don’t forget he had a bad injury, he had surgery,” he said. “This player has not played in seven months … We must have great patience. We have to hope to recover him very quickly, to try to help us for the rest of the season.”
Barkley has been at Everton since he was 11 years old, having been spotted by the club’s late and prolific former scout Sid Benson, and made 150 Premier League appearances.
His future at Goodison was thrown into doubt during Ronald Koeman’s reign as Everton manager, with the Dutch coach regularly criticising the midfielder in public and the player then stalling over a contract extension.
Koeman’s immediate replacement, David Unsworth, and permanent successor, Allardyce, both hoped a change in management would encourage Barkley to recommit to Everton but that has not materialised. The England midfielder has not featured this season because of his recovery from hamstring surgery but returned to first-team training over the festive period.
Ross Barkley menyepakati kontrak berdurasi lima setengah tahun di Stamford Bridge. OLEH AGUNG HARSYA Ikuti @agungharsya di twitter Chelsea memastikan perekrutan Ross Barkley dari Everton dengan transfer ditengarai senilai £15 juta.
Gelandang 24 tahun itu tidak pernah bermain sejak tujuh bulan lalu akibat cedera hamstring. Akibat cedera itu Barkley harus menjalani operasi, Agustus silam. Di Chelsea, Barkley menyepakati kontrak berdurasi lima setengah tahun. Artikel dilanjutkan di bawah ini
"Sulit dipercaya saya diberikan awal baru bersama klub seperti Chelsea," ujar pemain yang mengukir 22 caps untuk timnas inggris ini.
Barkley bergabung ke Everton sejak masih berusia 11 tahun. Dia memulai debut untuk Toffees pada 2011. Total Barkley tampil 150 kali di Liga Primer Inggris dengan menyarangkan 21 gol.
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Chelsea are reportedly "close to clinching" a deal to sign Everton midfielder Ross Barkley after they submitted a new offer for the England international.
The Toffees playmaker came close to moving to Stamford Bridge in the summer transfer window, but Matt Law of the Telegraph reported Chelsea are now "increasingly confident" and that talks between the two clubs are under way.
Law expanded on his report on Friday morning, with the Telegraph man tweeting that only a medical stands between Barkley and a move to Stamford Bridge.
It's understood Chelsea are seeking a swift resolution on the 24-year-old's future rather than allowing the saga to rage into January, with the Blues willing to pay £15 million to cut a deal this month.
The Times' Paul Joyce recently provided quotes from Everton manager Sam Allardyce giving his view on Barkley's future, and the synopsis was far from hopeful in the long term.
Allardyce said: "The club was resigned before I got here that they were going to lose Ross. I can't see that changing."
The £15 million sum linked with the move is said to be half the figure Chelsea were willing to pay in the summer, although Tottenham Hotspur are also thought to be interested in the player.
The Liverpool native joined the Everton academy in 2005 and ascended to first-team duties within five years, once seen as a jewel of the side and one of the figures who could become a regular England international.
But injuries have stunted his progress this season and prevented him from playing this campaign, with Chelsea taking something of a risk by investing in a player who's been sidelined since August.
There's also the argument as to how much Barkley will offer Blues manager Antonio Conte, who already has the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian, Pedro and Danny Drinkwater competing for similar places in the team.
