2 – Ross Barkley
The London Evening Standard claimed an exclusive before Christmas, suggesting that Tottenham would make a £35million approach for Ross Barkley.
Barkley has never seemed a great fit under Koeman, with the Everton boss even publicly criticising the player in the past.
There’s no doubt that Barkley has a huge amount of potential, but he’s been mismanaged and struggled to realise his potential to date. That doesn’t mean he can’t though and whilst £35million might (rightly) seem like a lot of money, if he were to realise his potential then he’d be worth every penny.
The problem with Barkley is although he can play wide, he’s never looked convincing in that position, so it’d be hard to see all three of Alli, Barkley and Dembele fitting in the same midfield. It would however, give Tottenham a much wider range of attacking options and give them far less dependency on the duo of Alli and Kane.
Would Everton sell? I think so. As I’ve said, Koeman doesn’t seem to be the players biggest fan and also the club have already spent a lot of money in January on Lookman and Schneiderlin, and with plans to reportedly spend more, I can see the owners wanting to cash in on an asset, and Barkley makes sense. His contract also expires at the end of next season, so the club will know they need to cash in soon if they do not plan to keep him at the club for longer.
