Everton: Could former Evertonian return to the club after Frank Lampard’s arrival?

Ross Barkley was born in Liverpool, Merseyside and joined Everton as an 11-year-old and played for the club’s youth teams. Former Everton legend, Tim Cahill, heralded Barkley as the most talented footballer he had worked with.

Barkley’s early performances were highly praised and in December 2011, he signed a new four-and-a-half-year contract with the Toffees. Unfortunately for the attacking midfielder, he couldn’t live up to the expectations and never really reached the heights expected of him, during his career.

He refused to sign a new contract during the 2017-18 Premier League season as he believed that it was time for him to take on a new challenge in his career and moved to Chelsea in the January transfer window during that season, leaving Everton having played 170 matches for the Merseyside club and during that time scoring 26 goals and providing 20 assists.

Saying that his time at Chelsea has been underwhelming would be an absolute understatement. During his 5 seasons with the Stamford Bridge side, Barkley was only able to feature 98 times out of which only 58 were starts and during this period he was able to provide 11 goals and 11 assists for the West London club. (via FBref)

Is Ross Barkley really needed at Everton?

Everton sacked Rafa Benitez after an abysmal run of just one win in 13 Premier League matches that saw Everton slip further down to 16th in the Premier League table.

Frank Lampard is set to be announced as the new Everton boss. It is rumoured that Lampard wants Ross Barkley, as he eyes a reunion with the Chelsea midfielder who is currently out of favour at Stamford Bridge.

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Barkley will be making a return to where it all started for him, this move will generate sentimental attention and could get the fans excited as it signals a new era under Lampard’s stewardship.

The details of this deal are still unknown but Everton already have Anwar El Ghazi on loan at the club and with Donny Van de Beek also joining the Toffees on loan, Everton may not be able to engineer another loan deal.

Everton have already spent a substantial amount in the market for Nathan Patterson and Vitaliy Mykolenko so the Royal Blues are unlikely to launch a transfer offer. So, even if there might be genuine interest, the deal looks impossible.

Will the Toffees sign Ross Barkley?