Misunderstood Ross Barkley must seize his chance at Chelsea | Daniel Taylor

Jan 06, 2018

Everton’s loss can be England’s gain in a World Cup year if Antonio Conte can do the trick for a real confidence player

There was a time, going back a few years, when Everton envisaged Ross Barkley being a different kind of player to the one we see now. Ask David Moyes and he will tell you that at 15 Barkley was the closest he had ever seen to a young Norman Whiteside. Barkley could get up and down the pitch, he had the same kind of rare quality that saw Whiteside bend the ball past Neville Southall in the 1985 FA Cup final and, more than anything, he was utterly fearless in the tackle. Moyes and the youth-team coaches would flinch when they saw him hurtling into a 50-50 challenge.

That changed, at 16, when Barkley broke his leg in two places after going into a tackle during an England Under‑19s game against Belgium. When Barkley came back from that double fracture his coaches noticed how he no longer launched himself at the ball quite so vigorously. Barkley started to play with more restraint, relying on the skills that brought other comparisons, not least to Paul Gascoigne.

Tags: Chelsea England Everton Football Ross Barkley Sport