…I remember Barkley starting in a wide right position for England U21 and being run ragged by a young Albanian RB who worked on their railway. He’s always been a player with no powers of recovery, when you run past him he’s out of the game. We have too many players like that, amazing some folk want another.
He’s also now an injury liability as well as being an embarrassment off the pitch.
I remember you saying at the time, the hamstring injury was a bad one and I'm not sure he's ever fully recovered from that. That has always felt the case for me.
I just don't think he has ever really kicked from when he was an 18 year old, or even a 16 year old that much. At 19 in his 1st season under Martinez, he was a very similar player to the one we now see. He did some aspects of the game very well, but he was not a rounded enough player.
I don't think he's ironed out those weak areas, and to a degree injuries have probably limited his strengths as well. You might have hoped moving to Chelsea would have helped him improve technically but it hasn't happened at all for him.
I'm generally not against such signings on loan, but I'm not sure he can be much more than a luxury player now. I often think if you get a top 4 player they will often have good habits when they join you, but he doesn't really. It's a bit of a no for me.