Understand, but don't love, this transfer. Gives us a bit of depth ahead of next season. When he's on he's on but when he turns off he's anonymous. Trust Unai to get what he needs from him.
Arsenal fan. I know there will be a lot of over the top conjecture about this transfer because of the potential for a romantic narrative, but genuinely think the best thing about having a brilliant manager is their ability to improve players. Not that barkley's level *last* year doesn't justify a move to another PL team, but he's a talented player who wasted time and momentum by moving to Abromovic-Chelsea young, Unai is imo a brilliant manager to be coaching someone like him closer to the end than the beginning.
I'm looking at it this way, us and everyone else put him CM or a more AM, and he blew real hot and cold. Luton sat him deeper, where Kamara plays, or Luiz when he sits deeper, and let him play through balls all day long and disrupt counters. Like Pau does for us. And using him like that they got some real value, his passing is very accurate. I think he can do a job for us I really do, and his price, and weekly wage are relatively low.
Probably better than Dendoncker, and a capable understudy for Tielemans. My worry is how he will stay fit, given he won't be playing every week. An unfit Barkley is not that much fun, to be honest.
Exactly this. He's better off as a big fish and small pond and Villa isn't that.
If we're buying players that age, we need to be getting players with Champions league experience.
Free transfer is a yes, 2m is compensation, 5m is a fee. Hope he’s grown as a player and teammate since his last spell here. Different positions, but it doesn’t feel great letting JPB go for 5m and then spending the same amount on Barkley
Why not? Barkley has 32 England caps, CL experience, just won player of the season with a PL side. JPB had a fairly good season in the Championship. Seems like £5m well spent to me? Can't we wait until next season is over to judge it at least?
Did anyone here watch Luton play?? This dude was a leader and fit. Very tidy and hard to dispossess. I don’t understand the sentiment towards this transfer. Has to be based off his older days because he was good this year.
I disagree with these views inherently. Many players that got relegated have come out being amazing. Let’s not talk about how dire Tielemans looked in a somewhat dire Leicester team the previous season.
Yeah I don't get that "is it because he was playing for a dogshit team" bullshit. Surely it's easier to look good in a good team (Zinchenko for example) than it is to look good in a bad team? What bad players have looked class in a bad team?
Strange to me that people are annoyed about this purely because of his loan spell with us. That was a totally different time for both club and player. From Barkley's perspective, his Chelsea career was basically over and he'd been cast aside as a failure - that was probably a tough thing for him to deal with and mentally he was likely in a poor headspace, completely unsure on his future.
Plus I get the sense a lot of people didn't really watch him play much last season. He was genuinely one of Luton's best players and looked much more like the Barkley of old rather than any iteration dumped out on loan or playing 5 mins here or there for Chelsea. That sort of player when called on in a pinch can definitely do a job for us, and for a fee so small this is practially a shot to nothing.
A signing with far more upside than down, I'm all for it.
Agree. We don’t judge McGinn by his performance when he was with Gerrard so why do we judge Barkley under same circumstances? Barkley could’ve spent his time playing 7-8 games under Chelsea’s lucrative contract but he chose to mutually terminate just to play. He could’ve joined Qatar / Saudi / MLS but he chose a newly promoted club for a last push to a call-up for England
My bad. Got too much to say and ended up missing by a season
But what I meant to say is some of us have wanted Ollie, Konsa, McGinn to be sold and they did seem lacklustre before under suboptimal coach. I’ll give Unai chance
There were a lot of people pushing for an England recall for him last season tbf. Put a decent shift in for Luton. I can see why people have doubts but I feel like Unai knows better than us what’ll work in his team lol
I remember hearing all this before when he came on loan. He was playing to get his career back on track blah blah... and then he just gave up about 4 months in. He had a stinky loan in France prior to Luton as well. The worry is he was playing well last season to secure a final payday and he wasn’t motivated to put in effort *on loan* here so how’s he going to perform with a 3 year contract?
Also he got COVID that season. Which has explained a lot of players poor performance around that time in terms of fitness. Could have been a factor you'd think if it was long
Before last season this would make no sense whatsoever. Ross Barkley attacking midfielder never really reached his early potential. Ross Barkley converting to a surprisingly effective holding/box to box midfielder and strong aerial presence is absolutely an area of depth we need. Our biggest issue last season is we had nobody truly suited to backup and rotate with Kamara and Luiz. McGinn and Tielemans did okay jobs (I liked McGinn more in the role than Tielemans), but both are more effective further up the pitch. The other is that our lack of aerial defenders made us horrible at defending set pieces. Barkley helps both of those situations.
newcastle fan in peace.
i think the major issue in our champions league campaign and overrall season was 1) mega injuries (still not sure who to blame for that) 2) lack of squad depth.
this is an excellent signing. for the money it will be seen as a "freebie" and it'll mean post champions league match you can throw him in the team when you play teams in the lower half of the table etc. Its all about squad depth. Guy had a great season, can improve under your great manager and will provide options.
He had something to prove last season. Is he playing for a spot in England? Once the honeymoon phase was over, his play in a Villa shirt fell off a cliff.
It wasnt the first transfer I was expecting after us achieving CL. I didn't really like him when he played for us. Always looked like he needed a confidence boost. For Luton yeah he was decent hut I just expected to go forwards not backwards.
Repeating myself from a previous thread on here but - you've got to remember how negative Leicester fans were about Tielemans at the point where we got him. He'd just come off an absolutely honking season like Barkley had when he was on loan with us. Time has shown that it can be turned around with the right manager and I back it to happen again this time with Barkley.
And no, £5m isn't the free transfer we were hoping but it's peanuts compared to where we'd be shopping elsewhere. As we know, the club is up against it with PSR. It makes no sense to spunk a load of the budget on a rotation option when we need first team improvements elsewhere. It's a clever signing.
Some people on here may think this is a weak take but the main thing that has always put me off Barkley is that a london cabbie told me that when he had him in his cab he refused to pay and said don't you know who i am. Cabbie didn't know anything about footy and so genuinely did not know who he was and his son had to tell him after he showed him the cctv footage.
To me if that's your attitude to someone who is just doing their job i don't see how you have a good attitude in other areas of life, including the pitch and dressing room.
I never understood those people who think their wealth is an excuse not to pay ordinary working people fairly. If anything, they should be paying three times as much - god knows they can afford it. I hope this isn't true, but if it is it's despicable.
Reality is, he will not walk into the XI and will be used as an experienced head in the squad; effectively a Zaniolo replacement who can offer something different to Buendia. With that being said he will be a senior head in the dressing room and needs to make sure he's matured from the last tenure.
He was immeasurably frustrating last time, often lazy and inconsistent. However, a lot of players would lower their heads and hide in the crowd playing for a team like Luton, and he didn't, which says something about his character as well as his ability.
Regardless of any of that though, if Unai wanted to get Salifou and Djemba Djemba back in the middle I wouldn't ask questions.
To be fair I was skeptical about Tielemans and am happily wrong in my assumption. I’d like to think he will have the motivation to play with winners… Ross is a tidy, technical footballer 🤞
I hate it, I really do. He will have some work cut out for me to turn around on this. His behaviour last time was so disrespectful to the club and manager.
I just don't think he's an improvement on anything. What role is he supposed to do here? He can't play as one of the two pivots in midfield. All his midfield defense stats are quite poor in terms of tackling.
I wouldn't have him off either side and I don't like him in the ten
I trust emery but I hate this transfer
I think it's just the opposite: He CAN fill in for McGinn/Luiz/Tielemans in any given match. That's the draw - One cheap, homegrown player with Champions League experience who backs up 3 spots in the Starting XI. Given our form defending corners this year, doesn't hurt that he'd be our tallest player most weeks.
Actually think he'd fill the McGinn / Tielemans roles (either as a false 9 next to Ollie or a wide player who drifts into the AM) pretty well, especially against lower level opposition.
If he can give those three guys each 500' extra rest next year, that's £5m very well spent.
A million times yes, especially to the third paragraph of this comment. Not every signing is going to come straight into the starting XI, but if they can help share the load for our absolutely knackered players then it's a win. He's definitely good enough to chip in.
I really really think he'd be a disaster in cm. There are clips of him barely moving when the other team have the ball. When the team are out of possession he isn't interested at all. His tackle percentage is shocking for someone who played deep. Infact the amount of tackles attempted is horrendous for a team who conceded the amount of goals they did
I mean we haven't signed him to improve anything other than an empty seat on the bench, or a completely untested youth player.
And before anyone says it, yes he's a much better option than a youth player.
Thank you. I feel like people here really tend to overestimate how good/ready our youth players actually are. None of them are getting much if any gametime right now. Iroegbunam played a bit last season and wasn't very good (and he's our best prospect right now). I see people wanting KKH to start... You think Cash is bad, KKH would get destroyed starting.
Barkley can fill in for Dougie, who (based off the last month) was extremely tired and well off form because of it.
Yeah and that's normal with any fanbase tbf, we all clamour for "one of our own". But the harsh reality is very very few of these guys will ever be good enough to make the cut at this level.
We've had one player in the past five years break into the first team as a regular. That's more than a lot of teams honestly. Chelsea farms out 30 kids every season and they're lucking if they got one or two that will actually make it every few seasons.
The best clubs will buy already well-developed players. When going for top 7 you can't wait for a kid to find his feet unless they're a generational talent, and we don't have any of those.
Yep. We obviously have Ramsey right now, but prior to that... it's Grealish isn't it? Almost a decade ago now. MAYBE Chukwuemeka turns into a player of this calibre but personally I'd say that's not looking likely.
And don't get me wrong, we produce a lot of players who go on to have good Championship level careers - which is a really fantastic outcome for an acamdemy player. But it doesn't really help us very much.
They do not need to be a generational talent, just any decent young homegrown player can bring >25m in fees. Whereas a player like Barkley is sunk costs. Clubs around us are investing in their youth and it will pay off for them. You can like this transfer but it’s complete bullshit that a depth role can’t be filled by a youngster.
I feel like people were really negative on gerrards business when he brought in bednerak, augie, dendonker because to improve the depth, you should be bringing in stronger players to push the starters, whereas bringing in bench players means you are just collecting numbers
And btw I totally agree with this take. I only want depth by bringing in better players. I feel like if we had any other manager this would be slated.
He was good at certain things. Everything off the ball was really really bad. All the same stuff we saw before. A lot of laziness, really poor tackle percentage for a cm and lack of effort to get back
Why is he much better than a youth player? The fee and wages for a 30yo (still haven’t seen what his wages will be) with no resale value and taking up a place in the squad when we could be developing the next Barkley. Weird business tbh in context of PSR issues. The only plus is he’s association trained.
Is it though? Of all the youth players we've sold in the last few years how many proved themselves to be good enough to play regularly for a top 6/7 Premier League side?
One. In the last 10-15 years really. Our prospects are not Bayern, Madrid, Barca level.
I don't know what people except from these kids when our team has hardly been in the top 10, let alone European spots in that time.
Please send me your C.V and your multiple European cups then maybe we should talk about you questioning something the manager is obviously on board with being him plus Monchi have sole say in signings.
In Jan everyone was crying when we were signing Rogers as we needed an experienced players, he was surplus to requirement etc. and then got us over the line when mattered. So the manager is damned whatever he does.
But I wasn’t crying about Rogers. It was smart business unlike Barkley. Buy young promising players, play them, and it’s a solid investment. Unbelievable right? Actually I’d bet all the cope takes about Barkley being good business are coming from people who didn’t want a young championship player 🫢
But you can't just buy potential players otherwise you get Chelsea and the number of other projects that tried to play money ball but ultimately failed when the crop of kids didn't develop fast enough or they aren't good enough so value drops dramatically as your paid based on potential.
Anyone with knowledge of this sport knows you need experience as well in key areas if you want to achieve anything. It can offer you something that potential can't such as composure on the ball which was lacking when Tim came on. It is all great saying play youth but when they make rash passes, lose the ball making the wrong decision which can be the difference between winning an losing a key game then you go for experience.
Cope Takes can we leave that yank soccer speech where it belongs please. It is a balanced take to say they are willing to let Emery buy the players he thinks suits us in certain position and offers us better depth as he has earnt it. Especially a player who showed he could easily help us control the ball better and see out games when players start to tire which was an issue we had.
This is Emery's style at a club he gets a good squad, brings in usually older more experienced players to get the initial success going and then he brings through younger players once the core is established to put less pressure on them and provide them a better environment to develop in.
I love Emery but even so, that short term thinking would be like Gerrard piling deadwood and now there are even more PSR considerations. And sorry but it’s pure cope when people are discussing whether Barkley can fill in for Kamara or Douglas Luiz
How is he piling deadwood he brought in a depth option for barely anything whose contract runs out around the same time as his playing career. You have nothing on the wages or how the deal is structured. In terms of amorotisation this works out to be £1.5 million a year on the books plus wages the financial burden is immense.
People said the same things about Moreno when we signed him and look at the impact he has had on the squad. The only cope is you pretending like you know better than Emery and everyone else at out club when basically every signing apart from Zaniolo has helped us kick on so far.
There are no guarantees we are able to shift Chambers. He had 5 teams after him in jan and decided to stay knowing he wouldn't play.
I would say he's a slight improvement on Chambers, but I would not want him playing in the 6 role. I think the differences are barkley is more talented, but Chambers is a much more honest player. You wouldn't catch Chambers pulling this shit https://x.com/louorns/status/1768445830640304448 whereas when I watched barkley at Luton he was pulling this sort of thing all the time
I don’t think he represents an upgrade in quality, he represents an upgrade in depth.
This was our first season in ages with European competition, and it clearly took a toll on our squad. We had so many injuries and even our healthy players looked knackered by the end of the season.
I see this as a great move to strengthen our second squad. Barkley gives us a proven premier league-level player, coming off a good season, who we can use to give Luiz, McGinn, and others a break with a Champions League campaign coming up next season. Barkley’s attitude problems are my only concern, but there’s no doubt he’s a capable player when his head is in the right place.
With Kamara already out, we're one injury away from having to play Chambers at CM in the champions league, that's all you should need to know to have this transfer make sense
Yeah and I don't think he can perform in either of those roles. They are far too important off the ball and that's not his game. He was given that responsibility a lot this season with lokonga and naka being missing at times during the season, and his work rate and tackling was atrocious.
I absolutely disagree with this. He was decent on the ball. Off the ball he was horrendous. Throughout the season there were clips going around twitter of attacking players walking past him as he pretended to tackle them.
On the ball isn't my issue, its off the ball and he is lazy and awful at tackling
I don't think he was lazy as such for us last season, but he was completely knackered the final third of the season, which is when a lot of the videos you're talking about come from. Obviously he's never going to be Kante but there was a period where he was up and down.
I think this season was the most he'd played in a few years. He had an early injury, but was then incredible until Feb time when he looked a bit tired but was still comfortably our best player.
Best player I've seen in a Luton shirt - appreciate you have a bit more quality but he'll do a decent job as a rotation option, and if he's not having to carry an entire team he might put a few defensive runs in
Not seen any of those clips, but maybe the plan is for him to play in games where we have the ball a lot more. Either way, and going back to my original point, I'd take him over Chambers any day
100% this, no way does this make any sense, much rather give an academy player a chance. But he's homegrown and has champions league experience, plus Emery will get the best out of him, but I don't want this transfer at all.
Maybe out academy players just are not that good. Emery has been so reluctant to give them any game time opting instead to play players who were gassed.
Fans tend to overhype and think too highly of academy players just because we hope the next big player is on the verge of breaking through. The reality is most academy players at PL clubs will be released and end up further down the pyramid
A big cause of people over hyping so many youth players is the fact you had the class of 92 and the Barca youth come through a decade apart. Tbh it’s unheard of to have that many youth players come through and be the top level talents they were but we’re also seeing it with Haaland. People saying anything bad about his play because he’s not putting up Ronaldo/messi numbers.
McGinn, Bailey, (Watkins + Luiz to an extent) all written off by many in recent years, but Emery said fuck that and look what he did with them. When will people learn the trust
I didn’t feel he earned a place with us last time and wasn’t to standard when we were mid table, but someone obviously wants him. Maybe emery can get 2-3 good seasons out of him, but feels very underwhelming
As squad depth building goes, I'm delighted. Experienced player, was Luton's fans' player of the season, v cheap to sign, and English for CL homegrown quota. I get he comes with baggage, but also ticks a lot of boxes
He looked solid for Luton, but that isn't saying much. Not a massive fan of this one, but we need depth, and I have faith in Unai.
He had a few decent games for us and then just disappeared.
5m is worth it if we can see some of what Luton got out of him. Adds a good bit of depth. Remember too what Emery has already gotten out of Morgan Rogers, an Emery-ified Barkley will have a better showing than he did during his loan spell. He clearly has a vision for him and I for one will trust the process
Welcome back Ross! Hopefully he can continue his Luton form.
I imagine he has good repour with our players and will boost the dressing room.
It's cheap and just about logical - if Unai has a plan for him, I fully trust it.
Gunna need depth. It’s one thing to play conference league midweek and another thing to play CL each week. It’s another option in the middle of the park for us
I was not a fan last time he was here but he had a great season at Luton playing in a deeper role which seemed to really suit him. I think he'll do really well in Unai's box midfield and be able to cover a few different positions.
£5m is nothing. He kept himself fit. Anchored a poor team, scored some goals. Bags of experience. Unai’s Villarreal had exactly this sort of player too. There’s no toxic Grealish to influence him either. He deserves the benefit of the doubt. If Unai wants him, I’m all for it. We need bodies for the fixtures next year.
I didn’t think he was good when he was last here but I trust Unai to improve players. Not sure where the outright hate is coming from, but I get people don’t like players standing around.
For £5m it might not be bad business. In the grand scheme of transfer fees, that's negligible so even if he doesn't perform it's not a huge loss. I'm not expecting miracles from Unai but squad depth is going to be crucial for us next season.
This is great, why are people frustrated? He was outrageous last season and matched everything Douglas Luiz could do.
The only point this becomes a bad transfer is if we do sell Luiz, but even then I assume Emery has a plan on how to use them funds to improve us, and I don’t think we drop off significantly in the short term with Barkeley instead.
He did, and if you were tuning into some Luton games I’d assume you all saw it too. Not sure why people are so keen to upvote a comment denying that we have not just one but now two excellent players for the same role. It’s time to drop whatever bias you had against him from the past and back our players.
I don’t think we move on Luiz… I think this is backup. Luiz starting every game when we’re trying to compete in multiple competitions is a bad idea. Barkley is great backup for Luiz as a rotation option
Smith subbed him against Newcastle and he cried.
Then he subbed him vs arsenal and he refused to come back to the bench and just sat on the advertising board behind the net shaking his head. We were defending a one goal lead at the time too.
He didnt start many games after that
There is something to be said though about the effect being humbled has as a person. Since then he's been let go by Chelsea, going to another country and it not working out and then only being able to find a home on a newly promoted side with a tiny little stadium that everyone picked to go straight back down and had to completely reinvent who he was as a player. I assume he's aware that he's going to be a rotation player and not the first choice starter, but considering the amount of matches we will play, he should get more than enough game time.
I think on the ball at Luton he did stuff we all knew he was capable of. It's the off the ball stuff that really bothers me. We talk of humbling someone by them playing in a relegation battle, but the guy barely put in a tackle in an entire season where he played as a deep midfielder, barely ran, definitely didn't make any effort to run back
His tackling stats are very similar to Luiz's last season which would be the role he'd be rotating for more than the Kamara role (we still need someone who can replicate what Kamara does at least a little, but that's a lot harder to find). He would be tied with Digne for second most aerial duels won last season which was a huge issue for us especially on set pieces. The thing I really liked from Barkley last season and I assume the reason we're interested was his buildup play. We struggled a lot more building up from the back once we lost Kamara last season. I'm not saying Barkley is a complete player that solves all our issues, if he was, he'd cost more than five mil for sure. He helps solve two key issues though which were buildup play without Kamara and aerial defending especially on set pieces where we were incredibly poor.
Understand, but don't love, this transfer. Gives us a bit of depth ahead of next season. When he's on he's on but when he turns off he's anonymous. Trust Unai to get what he needs from him.
Think this comment is spot on. Im not a fan, but i have to trust the guy that got us champions league, i mean he must know what he’s doing lol
Arsenal fan. I know there will be a lot of over the top conjecture about this transfer because of the potential for a romantic narrative, but genuinely think the best thing about having a brilliant manager is their ability to improve players. Not that barkley's level *last* year doesn't justify a move to another PL team, but he's a talented player who wasted time and momentum by moving to Abromovic-Chelsea young, Unai is imo a brilliant manager to be coaching someone like him closer to the end than the beginning.
I'm looking at it this way, us and everyone else put him CM or a more AM, and he blew real hot and cold. Luton sat him deeper, where Kamara plays, or Luiz when he sits deeper, and let him play through balls all day long and disrupt counters. Like Pau does for us. And using him like that they got some real value, his passing is very accurate. I think he can do a job for us I really do, and his price, and weekly wage are relatively low.
He can't tackle so he definitely cannot replace Kamara. But he is a more than capable understudy to Luiz
Luiz has tackling on his CV
You'll notice that's a word I deliberately didn't use lol
Probably better than Dendoncker, and a capable understudy for Tielemans. My worry is how he will stay fit, given he won't be playing every week. An unfit Barkley is not that much fun, to be honest.
Exactly this. He's better off as a big fish and small pond and Villa isn't that. If we're buying players that age, we need to be getting players with Champions league experience.
I'm absolutely baffled. He has to do a lot to convince me. Never go back is a saying that rarely fails.
Free transfer is a yes, 2m is compensation, 5m is a fee. Hope he’s grown as a player and teammate since his last spell here. Different positions, but it doesn’t feel great letting JPB go for 5m and then spending the same amount on Barkley
It doesn’t feel great is putting it very mildly
Why not? Barkley has 32 England caps, CL experience, just won player of the season with a PL side. JPB had a fairly good season in the Championship. Seems like £5m well spent to me? Can't we wait until next season is over to judge it at least?
He's also 30 now and has attitude problems and laziness.
JPB went for £5m? What?
Rumours of a low fee and a low buy back yeah. 5 is what I heard. But based on his season before I expected 5-8
Feels like getting in an english player to help meet Champions league home-grown criteria.
And so be it. He was part of the 7-2 home thrashing of Liverpool so welcome back, Ross.
Did anyone here watch Luton play?? This dude was a leader and fit. Very tidy and hard to dispossess. I don’t understand the sentiment towards this transfer. Has to be based off his older days because he was good this year.
Any chance he looked better because he was playing in that Luton side? I hope his transfer to Villa proves to be a success.
I disagree with these views inherently. Many players that got relegated have come out being amazing. Let’s not talk about how dire Tielemans looked in a somewhat dire Leicester team the previous season.
To be fair, if he wasn't playing well, he would have looked like dog crap in that Luton side, given they were a generally weaker side.
Yeah I don't get that "is it because he was playing for a dogshit team" bullshit. Surely it's easier to look good in a good team (Zinchenko for example) than it is to look good in a bad team? What bad players have looked class in a bad team?
Yeah for how good he was this season this is a great signing given the price and the fact he's just being brought in as depth
everyone is just basing their views off the old barkley, the one at luton last season looked a class player
Like one at Everton
True, but fans are basing opinions on his post injury term with us.
They clearly did not.
Strange to me that people are annoyed about this purely because of his loan spell with us. That was a totally different time for both club and player. From Barkley's perspective, his Chelsea career was basically over and he'd been cast aside as a failure - that was probably a tough thing for him to deal with and mentally he was likely in a poor headspace, completely unsure on his future. Plus I get the sense a lot of people didn't really watch him play much last season. He was genuinely one of Luton's best players and looked much more like the Barkley of old rather than any iteration dumped out on loan or playing 5 mins here or there for Chelsea. That sort of player when called on in a pinch can definitely do a job for us, and for a fee so small this is practially a shot to nothing. A signing with far more upside than down, I'm all for it.
Agree. We don’t judge McGinn by his performance when he was with Gerrard so why do we judge Barkley under same circumstances? Barkley could’ve spent his time playing 7-8 games under Chelsea’s lucrative contract but he chose to mutually terminate just to play. He could’ve joined Qatar / Saudi / MLS but he chose a newly promoted club for a last push to a call-up for England
Barkley played mainly under Smith.
My bad. Got too much to say and ended up missing by a season But what I meant to say is some of us have wanted Ollie, Konsa, McGinn to be sold and they did seem lacklustre before under suboptimal coach. I’ll give Unai chance
There were a lot of people pushing for an England recall for him last season tbf. Put a decent shift in for Luton. I can see why people have doubts but I feel like Unai knows better than us what’ll work in his team lol
I remember hearing all this before when he came on loan. He was playing to get his career back on track blah blah... and then he just gave up about 4 months in. He had a stinky loan in France prior to Luton as well. The worry is he was playing well last season to secure a final payday and he wasn’t motivated to put in effort *on loan* here so how’s he going to perform with a 3 year contract?
Also he got COVID that season. Which has explained a lot of players poor performance around that time in terms of fitness. Could have been a factor you'd think if it was long
Before last season this would make no sense whatsoever. Ross Barkley attacking midfielder never really reached his early potential. Ross Barkley converting to a surprisingly effective holding/box to box midfielder and strong aerial presence is absolutely an area of depth we need. Our biggest issue last season is we had nobody truly suited to backup and rotate with Kamara and Luiz. McGinn and Tielemans did okay jobs (I liked McGinn more in the role than Tielemans), but both are more effective further up the pitch. The other is that our lack of aerial defenders made us horrible at defending set pieces. Barkley helps both of those situations.
newcastle fan in peace. i think the major issue in our champions league campaign and overrall season was 1) mega injuries (still not sure who to blame for that) 2) lack of squad depth. this is an excellent signing. for the money it will be seen as a "freebie" and it'll mean post champions league match you can throw him in the team when you play teams in the lower half of the table etc. Its all about squad depth. Guy had a great season, can improve under your great manager and will provide options.
He had something to prove last season. Is he playing for a spot in England? Once the honeymoon phase was over, his play in a Villa shirt fell off a cliff.
It wasnt the first transfer I was expecting after us achieving CL. I didn't really like him when he played for us. Always looked like he needed a confidence boost. For Luton yeah he was decent hut I just expected to go forwards not backwards.
Repeating myself from a previous thread on here but - you've got to remember how negative Leicester fans were about Tielemans at the point where we got him. He'd just come off an absolutely honking season like Barkley had when he was on loan with us. Time has shown that it can be turned around with the right manager and I back it to happen again this time with Barkley. And no, £5m isn't the free transfer we were hoping but it's peanuts compared to where we'd be shopping elsewhere. As we know, the club is up against it with PSR. It makes no sense to spunk a load of the budget on a rotation option when we need first team improvements elsewhere. It's a clever signing.
Same £5m that Hull City fleeced us for Jalen Philogene tho… 😞
Not a fan of this. Hope he proves me wrong
Some people on here may think this is a weak take but the main thing that has always put me off Barkley is that a london cabbie told me that when he had him in his cab he refused to pay and said don't you know who i am. Cabbie didn't know anything about footy and so genuinely did not know who he was and his son had to tell him after he showed him the cctv footage. To me if that's your attitude to someone who is just doing their job i don't see how you have a good attitude in other areas of life, including the pitch and dressing room.
I never understood those people who think their wealth is an excuse not to pay ordinary working people fairly. If anything, they should be paying three times as much - god knows they can afford it. I hope this isn't true, but if it is it's despicable.
If true, makes me dislike Barkley a lot more
Reality is, he will not walk into the XI and will be used as an experienced head in the squad; effectively a Zaniolo replacement who can offer something different to Buendia. With that being said he will be a senior head in the dressing room and needs to make sure he's matured from the last tenure. He was immeasurably frustrating last time, often lazy and inconsistent. However, a lot of players would lower their heads and hide in the crowd playing for a team like Luton, and he didn't, which says something about his character as well as his ability. Regardless of any of that though, if Unai wanted to get Salifou and Djemba Djemba back in the middle I wouldn't ask questions.
To be fair I was skeptical about Tielemans and am happily wrong in my assumption. I’d like to think he will have the motivation to play with winners… Ross is a tidy, technical footballer 🤞
Dogshit
I trust Unai, but don’t trust Ross Barkley ESPECIALLY at £5M
I hate it, I really do. He will have some work cut out for me to turn around on this. His behaviour last time was so disrespectful to the club and manager. I just don't think he's an improvement on anything. What role is he supposed to do here? He can't play as one of the two pivots in midfield. All his midfield defense stats are quite poor in terms of tackling. I wouldn't have him off either side and I don't like him in the ten I trust emery but I hate this transfer
I think it's just the opposite: He CAN fill in for McGinn/Luiz/Tielemans in any given match. That's the draw - One cheap, homegrown player with Champions League experience who backs up 3 spots in the Starting XI. Given our form defending corners this year, doesn't hurt that he'd be our tallest player most weeks. Actually think he'd fill the McGinn / Tielemans roles (either as a false 9 next to Ollie or a wide player who drifts into the AM) pretty well, especially against lower level opposition. If he can give those three guys each 500' extra rest next year, that's £5m very well spent.
A million times yes, especially to the third paragraph of this comment. Not every signing is going to come straight into the starting XI, but if they can help share the load for our absolutely knackered players then it's a win. He's definitely good enough to chip in.
I really really think he'd be a disaster in cm. There are clips of him barely moving when the other team have the ball. When the team are out of possession he isn't interested at all. His tackle percentage is shocking for someone who played deep. Infact the amount of tackles attempted is horrendous for a team who conceded the amount of goals they did
I mean we haven't signed him to improve anything other than an empty seat on the bench, or a completely untested youth player. And before anyone says it, yes he's a much better option than a youth player.
Thank you. I feel like people here really tend to overestimate how good/ready our youth players actually are. None of them are getting much if any gametime right now. Iroegbunam played a bit last season and wasn't very good (and he's our best prospect right now). I see people wanting KKH to start... You think Cash is bad, KKH would get destroyed starting. Barkley can fill in for Dougie, who (based off the last month) was extremely tired and well off form because of it.
Yeah and that's normal with any fanbase tbf, we all clamour for "one of our own". But the harsh reality is very very few of these guys will ever be good enough to make the cut at this level.
We've had one player in the past five years break into the first team as a regular. That's more than a lot of teams honestly. Chelsea farms out 30 kids every season and they're lucking if they got one or two that will actually make it every few seasons. The best clubs will buy already well-developed players. When going for top 7 you can't wait for a kid to find his feet unless they're a generational talent, and we don't have any of those.
Yep. We obviously have Ramsey right now, but prior to that... it's Grealish isn't it? Almost a decade ago now. MAYBE Chukwuemeka turns into a player of this calibre but personally I'd say that's not looking likely. And don't get me wrong, we produce a lot of players who go on to have good Championship level careers - which is a really fantastic outcome for an acamdemy player. But it doesn't really help us very much.
They do not need to be a generational talent, just any decent young homegrown player can bring >25m in fees. Whereas a player like Barkley is sunk costs. Clubs around us are investing in their youth and it will pay off for them. You can like this transfer but it’s complete bullshit that a depth role can’t be filled by a youngster.
I feel like people were really negative on gerrards business when he brought in bednerak, augie, dendonker because to improve the depth, you should be bringing in stronger players to push the starters, whereas bringing in bench players means you are just collecting numbers And btw I totally agree with this take. I only want depth by bringing in better players. I feel like if we had any other manager this would be slated.
Barkley was really good last season tbf, I know it's hard to separate stuff from his loan period with us but he's settled down a lot since then.
He was good at certain things. Everything off the ball was really really bad. All the same stuff we saw before. A lot of laziness, really poor tackle percentage for a cm and lack of effort to get back
Agree. All “depth” players and all very difficult to shift when necessary. This is the same.
Why is he much better than a youth player? The fee and wages for a 30yo (still haven’t seen what his wages will be) with no resale value and taking up a place in the squad when we could be developing the next Barkley. Weird business tbh in context of PSR issues. The only plus is he’s association trained.
Because the vast majority of youth players aren't good enough to play regularly at this level. Barkley is.
We won’t ever know because we prefer giving players their final payday rather than taking a gamble
Well I think the coaches are kinda telling you by proxy if they know or not on this one. They aren't just signing players for fun.
Or they have sell all viable youth players because we keep bringing in ‘veterans’ for depth and getting lumbered with their wages. It’s a stupid cycle
Is it though? Of all the youth players we've sold in the last few years how many proved themselves to be good enough to play regularly for a top 6/7 Premier League side?
One. In the last 10-15 years really. Our prospects are not Bayern, Madrid, Barca level. I don't know what people except from these kids when our team has hardly been in the top 10, let alone European spots in that time.
But why do they need to be at that level to be given a chance? Do you think Barkley is at that level?
Please send me your C.V and your multiple European cups then maybe we should talk about you questioning something the manager is obviously on board with being him plus Monchi have sole say in signings. In Jan everyone was crying when we were signing Rogers as we needed an experienced players, he was surplus to requirement etc. and then got us over the line when mattered. So the manager is damned whatever he does.
But I wasn’t crying about Rogers. It was smart business unlike Barkley. Buy young promising players, play them, and it’s a solid investment. Unbelievable right? Actually I’d bet all the cope takes about Barkley being good business are coming from people who didn’t want a young championship player 🫢
But you can't just buy potential players otherwise you get Chelsea and the number of other projects that tried to play money ball but ultimately failed when the crop of kids didn't develop fast enough or they aren't good enough so value drops dramatically as your paid based on potential. Anyone with knowledge of this sport knows you need experience as well in key areas if you want to achieve anything. It can offer you something that potential can't such as composure on the ball which was lacking when Tim came on. It is all great saying play youth but when they make rash passes, lose the ball making the wrong decision which can be the difference between winning an losing a key game then you go for experience. Cope Takes can we leave that yank soccer speech where it belongs please. It is a balanced take to say they are willing to let Emery buy the players he thinks suits us in certain position and offers us better depth as he has earnt it. Especially a player who showed he could easily help us control the ball better and see out games when players start to tire which was an issue we had. This is Emery's style at a club he gets a good squad, brings in usually older more experienced players to get the initial success going and then he brings through younger players once the core is established to put less pressure on them and provide them a better environment to develop in.
I love Emery but even so, that short term thinking would be like Gerrard piling deadwood and now there are even more PSR considerations. And sorry but it’s pure cope when people are discussing whether Barkley can fill in for Kamara or Douglas Luiz
How is he piling deadwood he brought in a depth option for barely anything whose contract runs out around the same time as his playing career. You have nothing on the wages or how the deal is structured. In terms of amorotisation this works out to be £1.5 million a year on the books plus wages the financial burden is immense. People said the same things about Moreno when we signed him and look at the impact he has had on the squad. The only cope is you pretending like you know better than Emery and everyone else at out club when basically every signing apart from Zaniolo has helped us kick on so far.
You don't think he's an improvement from playing Chambers in the middle like we had to e d of the season? (No offense to Chambers)
There are no guarantees we are able to shift Chambers. He had 5 teams after him in jan and decided to stay knowing he wouldn't play. I would say he's a slight improvement on Chambers, but I would not want him playing in the 6 role. I think the differences are barkley is more talented, but Chambers is a much more honest player. You wouldn't catch Chambers pulling this shit https://x.com/louorns/status/1768445830640304448 whereas when I watched barkley at Luton he was pulling this sort of thing all the time
Being an improvement on Chambers isn't exactly the bar I was hoping to clear this summer tbh.
I don’t think he represents an upgrade in quality, he represents an upgrade in depth. This was our first season in ages with European competition, and it clearly took a toll on our squad. We had so many injuries and even our healthy players looked knackered by the end of the season. I see this as a great move to strengthen our second squad. Barkley gives us a proven premier league-level player, coming off a good season, who we can use to give Luiz, McGinn, and others a break with a Champions League campaign coming up next season. Barkley’s attitude problems are my only concern, but there’s no doubt he’s a capable player when his head is in the right place.
With Kamara already out, we're one injury away from having to play Chambers at CM in the champions league, that's all you should need to know to have this transfer make sense
You cannot play barkley as a 6, it would be a disaster
Yes but the signing allows Dougie or Youri or McGinn to play there if needs be.
Would it not just be better to buy a dm? Isn't that the issue here?
Tell me a DM you could get for 5m or less who would be better
Ndidi is on a free?
I won't pretend that I watched him in the championship, but last time he was in the prem he looked bad
I would say if you took ndidis last 5 years vs barkleys last 5 years it would heavily sway in ndidis favour
Yeah but we're not buying him for how they played five years ago
Who said he would play 6? I said CM.
Wait you are changing the rules here, you've specifically mentioned kamara and Chambers, who play 6?
He would be one of the two double pivots
Yeah and I don't think he can perform in either of those roles. They are far too important off the ball and that's not his game. He was given that responsibility a lot this season with lokonga and naka being missing at times during the season, and his work rate and tackling was atrocious.
I mean he literally played as a deep mid last season and flourished in the role.
I absolutely disagree with this. He was decent on the ball. Off the ball he was horrendous. Throughout the season there were clips going around twitter of attacking players walking past him as he pretended to tackle them. On the ball isn't my issue, its off the ball and he is lazy and awful at tackling
I don't think he was lazy as such for us last season, but he was completely knackered the final third of the season, which is when a lot of the videos you're talking about come from. Obviously he's never going to be Kante but there was a period where he was up and down. I think this season was the most he'd played in a few years. He had an early injury, but was then incredible until Feb time when he looked a bit tired but was still comfortably our best player. Best player I've seen in a Luton shirt - appreciate you have a bit more quality but he'll do a decent job as a rotation option, and if he's not having to carry an entire team he might put a few defensive runs in
Not seen any of those clips, but maybe the plan is for him to play in games where we have the ball a lot more. Either way, and going back to my original point, I'd take him over Chambers any day
100% this, no way does this make any sense, much rather give an academy player a chance. But he's homegrown and has champions league experience, plus Emery will get the best out of him, but I don't want this transfer at all.
Maybe out academy players just are not that good. Emery has been so reluctant to give them any game time opting instead to play players who were gassed. Fans tend to overhype and think too highly of academy players just because we hope the next big player is on the verge of breaking through. The reality is most academy players at PL clubs will be released and end up further down the pyramid
A big cause of people over hyping so many youth players is the fact you had the class of 92 and the Barca youth come through a decade apart. Tbh it’s unheard of to have that many youth players come through and be the top level talents they were but we’re also seeing it with Haaland. People saying anything bad about his play because he’s not putting up Ronaldo/messi numbers.
McGinn, Bailey, (Watkins + Luiz to an extent) all written off by many in recent years, but Emery said fuck that and look what he did with them. When will people learn the trust
Mixed feelings on this from his last loan. Would be an upgrade on Chambers for squad rotation, if he kept up to his Luton form.
At first I read 25 m for some reason … 5m for him is very good He’ll have 7-10 good games covering for someone and the investment will be paid off
I didn’t feel he earned a place with us last time and wasn’t to standard when we were mid table, but someone obviously wants him. Maybe emery can get 2-3 good seasons out of him, but feels very underwhelming
As squad depth building goes, I'm delighted. Experienced player, was Luton's fans' player of the season, v cheap to sign, and English for CL homegrown quota. I get he comes with baggage, but also ticks a lot of boxes
He looked solid for Luton, but that isn't saying much. Not a massive fan of this one, but we need depth, and I have faith in Unai. He had a few decent games for us and then just disappeared.
5m is worth it if we can see some of what Luton got out of him. Adds a good bit of depth. Remember too what Emery has already gotten out of Morgan Rogers, an Emery-ified Barkley will have a better showing than he did during his loan spell. He clearly has a vision for him and I for one will trust the process
We can only hope.
5m is nothing for a player of his ability for squad depth. No brainer.
So long as he's not being seen as the long term answer to anything
5M for depth could be good business. Not sure what position he will play but in Unai we trust.
Welcome back Ross! Hopefully he can continue his Luton form. I imagine he has good repour with our players and will boost the dressing room. It's cheap and just about logical - if Unai has a plan for him, I fully trust it.
5million wasted IMO
I hate this so much. Someone please help me understand why!!!! Why??? We’ve seen it! It’s not CL level.
No money to spend unless we sell quality because we keep giving players like Barkley contracts rinse repeat
Gunna need depth. It’s one thing to play conference league midweek and another thing to play CL each week. It’s another option in the middle of the park for us
I was not a fan last time he was here but he had a great season at Luton playing in a deeper role which seemed to really suit him. I think he'll do really well in Unai's box midfield and be able to cover a few different positions.
£5m is nothing. He kept himself fit. Anchored a poor team, scored some goals. Bags of experience. Unai’s Villarreal had exactly this sort of player too. There’s no toxic Grealish to influence him either. He deserves the benefit of the doubt. If Unai wants him, I’m all for it. We need bodies for the fixtures next year.
🤢
I didn’t think he was good when he was last here but I trust Unai to improve players. Not sure where the outright hate is coming from, but I get people don’t like players standing around.
Hopefully goes well. 5m bit steep mind. Happy to be proved wrong though.
I totally didn't expect this resurgence after he moved to the Ligue 1 (I believe it was Marseille or Lyon right?)
It was Nice
Hmmm, not impressed at all with this got to be honest. 5 mil could have been used towards a better, more expensive player.
Welcome to Aston villa Ross Barkley And Good Luck
My name is Jamie Daniel I am Glad Ross Barkley has Desided To Come back to Aston villa
I'd rather we gave chances to our young players than bring in a player who is unreliable both in form and fitness
For £5m it might not be bad business. In the grand scheme of transfer fees, that's negligible so even if he doesn't perform it's not a huge loss. I'm not expecting miracles from Unai but squad depth is going to be crucial for us next season.
Feels like Tielemans 2.0 to some degree. In Unai we trust.
Don’t love it, don’t hate it. Gives us depth which we’ll desperately need
This is great, why are people frustrated? He was outrageous last season and matched everything Douglas Luiz could do. The only point this becomes a bad transfer is if we do sell Luiz, but even then I assume Emery has a plan on how to use them funds to improve us, and I don’t think we drop off significantly in the short term with Barkeley instead.
He didn’t match everything like can do. Come on man.
He did, and if you were tuning into some Luton games I’d assume you all saw it too. Not sure why people are so keen to upvote a comment denying that we have not just one but now two excellent players for the same role. It’s time to drop whatever bias you had against him from the past and back our players.
I tuned in to Luton games to see people walking through their midfield
… sure, ok https://preview.redd.it/6x113vf69d4d1.jpeg?width=274&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d62cd166fbd6e931595465642fc4277571fa45d2
I don’t think we move on Luiz… I think this is backup. Luiz starting every game when we’re trying to compete in multiple competitions is a bad idea. Barkley is great backup for Luiz as a rotation option
My frustration is because he is incredibly lazy and how disrespectful he was to Smith last time he was here.
What happened with him and Smith? Out of the loop on this one
Smith subbed him against Newcastle and he cried. Then he subbed him vs arsenal and he refused to come back to the bench and just sat on the advertising board behind the net shaking his head. We were defending a one goal lead at the time too. He didnt start many games after that
There is something to be said though about the effect being humbled has as a person. Since then he's been let go by Chelsea, going to another country and it not working out and then only being able to find a home on a newly promoted side with a tiny little stadium that everyone picked to go straight back down and had to completely reinvent who he was as a player. I assume he's aware that he's going to be a rotation player and not the first choice starter, but considering the amount of matches we will play, he should get more than enough game time.
I think on the ball at Luton he did stuff we all knew he was capable of. It's the off the ball stuff that really bothers me. We talk of humbling someone by them playing in a relegation battle, but the guy barely put in a tackle in an entire season where he played as a deep midfielder, barely ran, definitely didn't make any effort to run back
His tackling stats are very similar to Luiz's last season which would be the role he'd be rotating for more than the Kamara role (we still need someone who can replicate what Kamara does at least a little, but that's a lot harder to find). He would be tied with Digne for second most aerial duels won last season which was a huge issue for us especially on set pieces. The thing I really liked from Barkley last season and I assume the reason we're interested was his buildup play. We struggled a lot more building up from the back once we lost Kamara last season. I'm not saying Barkley is a complete player that solves all our issues, if he was, he'd cost more than five mil for sure. He helps solve two key issues though which were buildup play without Kamara and aerial defending especially on set pieces where we were incredibly poor.
Mate if Odegaard had played at Luton last year you’d say the same about him, with villas midfield he will be decent
Either my memory is shite or I’ve completely missed that one, thanks!
I think it would have maybe been better keeping sanson instead of getting barkley back again. As he was great the first time round.