Ross Barkley is by far the best we've had through the academy since Rooney, whilst himself being nowhere in the same class as Rooney at that age. Rooney IMO actually peaked at 18/19, and in a similar way Barkley didn't improve after he was 21. In fact he went backwards. When he was younger I hoped that he could turn out to be spoken of in the same vein as Lampard and Gerrard, both of who carried on developing well until their mid twenties and then maintained it into their 30s. Sadly Barkley hasn't done that. I did see signs of the old Barkley for England this last week in the way he was picking up and running past players. He's still only 25.
None of our current crop, whilst still being good prospects, are in the same league as Barkley at the same age.
I remember (former academy director) Ray Hall saying we had to lower our expectation of what constitutes making it. As far as he was concerned if they played for Everton they had made it.
Ross Barkley has 27 games for England and he's just approaching his peak years. If the penny drops for him he will be comfortably double that. He will win loads of different medals. Even though he did us wrong, the fee we received for him will pay for the academy for at least a season, if not several. He plays for one of the best teams in Europe. It's an odd world that people view him as a failure.
The 18 months he missed with a double leg break affected him too. He was ready to break through as he did at 18 at 16. He missed a lot of development there. For me he was head and shoulders above Lampard and Gerrard at 16. He was better at 16 than both of those were at 18. However he didn't kick on as much as he should (barring Martinez's first season where he improved significantly). There's a common theme in there with our youth players.
That being said, it's an odd view of a failure. He already has more England caps than Harvey, Kendall, Reid & Bracewell combined.
