Would Everton midfielder Ross Barkley be a good signing for West Ham United in the summer transfer window?
Ross Barkley is one of the best young attacking midfielders in the Premier League, but the future of the Everton star is wrapped up in uncertainty.
The 23-year-old attacking midfielder has been on the books of Everton his entire professional club football career so far, but the England international’s current contract with the Toffees runs until the end of next season, according to Transfermarkt.co.uk.
The Mirror reported last month that Barkley has rejected a new contract worth £100,000 per week, with a report in the same newspaper earlier this month crediting Tottenham Hotspur with interest in the Englishman.
Everton reportedly want as much as £50m as transfer fee for the England international, but it is hard to see Spurs pay that much for the attacking midfielder.
Moreover, Barkley would not be guaranteed a place in Mauricio Pochettino’s starting lineup, which is quite settled.
With Everton having signed attacking midfielder Davy Klaassen among other players so far in the summer transfer window, the 23-year-old could struggle to feature regularly for Ronald Foeman’s side in 2017-18 as well.
Could West Ham United be a destination for Barkley? Former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Danny Murphy was posed the question on the Jim White show on talkSPORT last Thursday morning (broadcast from 10am, July 20, 2017) by a caller, to which he replied: “The argument is if he is wanting to play every week, which he was at Everton and would have done if he had signed a new contract, he is still going to play and earn 90 grand a week or whatever they offered him.
“West Ham… are they going to offer him that money? Probably they could pay it and then he might play every week. And yes, that is a question. But are West Ham better than Everton? No.”
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