Ross Barkley’s future at Everton is all but done as the 23-year-old has rejected a lucrative contract to remain with the Toffees. He only has 12 months remaining on his current contract.
The Express claims that Everton had provided the midfielder with a contract worth £100,000 a week to remain a Blue but the Englishman will now see out his contract or possibly move this summer, as his club would not want to let him go for free next season.
Ronald Koeman, who has been trying to keep hold of the Englishman, conceded that Barkley will leave in the summer as long as he receives a new challenge. As quoted by Express, he said:
“Yes. Yeah. His personal situation is not so difficult.
“We made a really good offer to sign a new contract, he declined that contract and told me he’s looking for a new challenge. It’s his decision.
“I need to respect that and we’ll see what happens, because I heard from the board that there’s not really an offer on the table for Ross.”
This got the bookmakers all excited and Betfair have actually placed us as favourites to sign the talented midfielder. We are 10/11 favourites to sign Barkley while there are a number of other clubs too, who are in the race for the 23-year-old.
Arsenal are second favourites for Barkley at 2/1 from an initial 4/1 while another of our rivals, Chelsea, are also in the race at odds of 6/1. Surprisingly, Liverpool are also being touted as contenders for Barkley’s signature. However, the Merseyside giants are outsiders at 12/1.
Barkley has been in the news regarding a shift away from the Goodison club despite the vast amounts of investment made at the club. The Toffees also lost Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United and while Barkley didn’t have the greatest of seasons last time around, he too will be a massive loss for them.
This is still great news for us and as we look forward to sell Moussa Sissoko, that should provide us with some extra cash to sign the 23-year-old. With Koeman’s quotes, the price for the Englishman will also come down a fair bit. However, a bidding war could still take place as Barkley is one of the brightest players in England.
A fresh challenge for the 23-year-old might just do the trick and with Mauricio Pochettino having done well with a number of young players at Tottenham, Barkley could be the next star to get a bit of a shake up by the Argentine.
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