Ross Barkley

[paul_e]

I'm not a fan but now he's here lets see if he can have more of an impact on games that he did at Chelsea and maybe hit the target a bit more often when he tries it on from 25yards.

[dicedlam]

Whatever the views on Ross Barkley, we are definitely stronger with him than without him.

Welcome Ross. Have a belter of a season, lad.

[Shrek]

A huge upgrade on Conor imo

Played 31 and 48 games last two seasons too

[Shrek]

How many of our existing midfielders would get a starting spot in that Chelsea squad? Good player that can't get regular football in a squad full of extremely good players.

We now have proper competition for the tree midfield places, which can only improve us.

Doug McGinn & Grealish

Only Grealish imo. Kante is better than Luiz and they have a number of players better than Mcginn.

I’m really excited by Barkley signing

[sickbeggar]

Big difference from making a massive impact playing in a team that's finished 3rd and 4th and won the Europa Cup to us. I'd be happy with that sort of impact to be honest.

[Bad English]

Did his mom cut his hair with a bowl?

[RamboandBruno]

I was a bit non plussed about signing Barclay tbh and initially would of preferred loftus cheek, without admittedly having seen him play too much, just liked  the idea of that up and down defensive minded midfielder.
However, my older brother is in his early 60s and for some reason only know to himself is a life long chelsea fan, a proper supporter as well, home away for decades even when they were shit throughout the 80s and early 90s.
Anyway asked his opinion and he basically said, chelsea never played him in the right way as a forward, driving, goal scoring midfielder and if we play him in that way, we have a very good player. He, like a lot of chelsea fans it seems are disappointed he’s gone and my bro actually said he’d rather loftus-cheek had gone, who he labelled ‘useless’. This seems a pretty consistent view across a lot of chelsea supporters, which hopefully bodes well.

And As an Evertonian, he’ll be dying to score against Liverpool on Sunday!!

[Toronto Villa]

He has 33 England caps.

He was brilliant for Everton, and has done ok for Chelsea. For where we are right now he's a good signing and adds to the first team squad.

I'm pleased.

That’s what’s important. It’s where we are now. A side that just stayed up, not in Europe, Barkley has left his club who will play in the CL, and with the exception of the LC, will challenge for titles. We now have three current England internationals in the side. Takes some stress off the current players in those central positions. One injury like we saw a With SJM last year and you saw just how thin we were. This is a very solid addition.

[in exile]

Welcome Ross.
Please be better than the last Ross we signed.

[dave shelley]

Welcome mate, you left a good club to join Chelski and arrived at the best club in the world albeit by a circuitous route.  Please don't let this opportunity pass you by.

[OCD]

Well I've had a couple of people who support other teams messaging me about the signing. That's got to be a good sign.

[Toronto Villa]

It’s not the be all, end all, but the views of most other fans is that this is a very good signing.

[chrisw1]

He has 33 England caps.

He was brilliant for Everton, and has done ok for Chelsea. For where we are right now he's a good signing and adds to the first team squad.

I'm pleased.

That’s what’s important. It’s where we are now. A side that just stayed up, not in Europe, Barkley has left his club who will play in the CL, and with the exception of the LC, will challenge for titles. We now have three current England internationals in the side. Takes some stress off the current players in those central positions. One injury like we saw a With SJM last year and you saw just how thin we were. This is a very solid addition.

Exactly.  We were very light in midfield and we now have McGinn, Hourihane and Barkley (and Ramsey) to compete for 2 places the way we currently set up.  We're still a bit light at DM and have to hope Luiz can stay fit.

[jwarry]

He has 33 England caps.

He was brilliant for Everton, and has done ok for Chelsea. For where we are right now he's a good signing and adds to the first team squad.

I'm pleased.

We now have three current England internationals in the side.

Cant recall that ever happening before. Probably goes back to the 1800s!

[Lastfootstamper]

Non-plussed, is midfield really where we need to strengthen?

Yes, we keep on getting overrun at times.  Also, we struggle to get central midfield players up quickly to support our central striker.

Ahead of a left back and centre forward? Really?

How is getting Barkley in on loan stopping us still strengthening elsewhere?