Ross Barkley completed his long-mooted move to Chelsea on Friday afternoon, moving to Stamford Bridge in a £15m transfer from Everton.
In a league where transfer fees have been spiralling out of control in recent years, that figure is seen by some as something of a bargain. Granted, the 24-year-old’s contract was due to expire in a few months, leaving him free to join another club on a free transfer, but Chelsea were prepared to pay £35m to sign Barkley on transfer deadline day back in August.
The Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, took to Twitter on Friday to evening to question how Barkley’s value has been allowed to fall so dramatically in a few months. Anderson intends to write to the Premier League and the FA to determine how Barkley, having spurned a move to Stamford Bridge at the last minute in August, has not played a single second of first team football for Everton this season,which in turn has seen his value decrease as he moved towards the end of his current contract (with all hope of a renewal seemingly gone).
Both Lukaku and Stones not homegrown talent left Everton and we got a great price, Barkley home grown player has left and has cost EFC £20 million at least. There is no defence for me of him,he could have signed a longer contract and still left the Club.
— Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) January 5, 2018
I will be writing to .@premierleague & .@FA calling for investigation into the circumstances around the transfer of Ross Barkley between Everton and Chelsea. Agent pulls transfer on deadline day of £35 million doesn’t play again transfer 4 months later £20 million
— Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) January 5, 2018
We also got a good deal in a transfer fee that was honest, everyone knows Barkley is worth at least £50 million in today’s market, don’t mind him going but Club and fans being ripped off. https://t.co/pZPIgwdn2F
— Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) January 5, 2018
Conversely, while Everton would almost certainly put a higher value on Barkley had they been in a stronger position regarding his contract (and the £50m they had been quoting Tottenham in the early part of last summer can attest to that), the fact that they were always going to lose Barkley – either now or in the summer – coupled with the fact that he would likely not have played a big role in Sam Allardyce’s plans for the remainder of the season because of that, meant that it made more sense to cash in on him now rather than lose him for nothing in the summer.
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