What now for Ross Barkley?

Now that Ross Barkley has returned to training with the Everton first team, what can we expect from the midfielder moving forward?

Whether by design or luck, everything Sam Allardyce has touched since taking over as Everton manager, has turned to gold. Once again, he has worked his magic for a club that was struggling at the wrong end of the table.

The Midas Touch continued on Friday, with the return of a familiar face. As reported by the Daily Mail‘s Layth Yousif, Ross Barkley was back in the training with the first team.

Barkley was given a round of applause by his team mates and coaches at Finch Farm. He has yet to play this season, after suffering a hamstring tear during training in August.

Of course, this now leads to the question of what the future holds for the 24-year-old? With just six months remaining on his contract, Everton have an important decision to make.

Barkley was all but gone under Ronald Koeman, after refusing to sign a contract extension. The bad blood continued between player and manager, as he also decided against joining Chelsea during the Summer.

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Since then, however, Koeman has been sacked, with both David Unsworth and then Allardyce insisting the door is open for the England international to remain on Merseyside.

If the Blues take a common sense/business approach, they will sell Barkley when the transfer window reopens next month. Or they can keep him around, attempt to convince him to re-sign and risk losing him for nothing in the Summer.

Having said that, there are other factors to consider. For example, any decision about Barkley’s future may already be out of Allardyce’s hands.

This is something the Blues’ manager acknowledged recently. As reported by Sky Sports, he said:

"“I’d like to think we can keep Barkley, unless somebody’s already done a deal for him. I am not daft enough to know in this game that those words and phone calls might not have already gone on.”"

Understandably, Barkley’s main concern is getting enough first team action, to improve his opportunity to play in the World Cup in Russia. Interestingly, as much as Everton would like him to remain long-term, even sticking around until the Summer could impact his chances of being selected by England.

As noted by Yousif, the presence of Wayne Rooney and Gylfi Sigurdsson could limit Barkley’s first team starts. Both players have been in fine form, since Allardyce took over as manager.

First things first though, Barkley just needs to get back on the pitch and show the talent which made him such a hot commodity to begin with. With five matches in just 14 days, you imagine he will get his opportunity.

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What would you prefer to do with Barkley? Would you put him back in the first team and keep him for the remainder of the season? Or would you cut your losses now and attempt to sell him in January? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.