Have a feeling this might be similar to the Tom Cleverly loan - whereby Barkley sees out time with us until he gets a more attractive move, turning in the odd decent game here and there.
Without that option to buy it's a danger.
But against that, if he has designs on getting back in the England squad he'll need to be performing regularly. He also has better players around him already than Cleverly did back then, so if it goes well, making the move permanent could suit all.
