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Exclusive: Ross Barkley turns down chance to join Chelsea
Ross Barkley dramatically turned down the chance to join Chelsea on a busy transfer deadline day for the Premier League champions.
As Chelsea agreed a fee worth around £35 million with Leicester City for midfielder Danny Drinkwater and confirmed the £23m signing of right-back Davide Zappacosta from Torino, Barkley decided to keep his options open until January.
This led Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to believe that Everton did not want to do business with him over Barkley, although the Toffees insist this was not the case and that no final position was given during negotiations between Levy and Everton chairman Bill Kenwright.
Barkley was uncomfortable with having to decide his future in a matter of hours and informed Chelsea that he wants to wait until January to make a decision on his next move.
Chelsea and Tottenham will try for Barkley again in the January transfer window. He has already entered the final 12 months of his contract and is unlikely to play again this year after undergoing surgery on his injured hamstring.
That means his value will drop dramatically in January, when he will be only six months from being able to leave Everton for nothing.
Everton claimed that Barkley even underwent a Chelsea medical before changing his mind, but sources close to the player insist that is not the case and the 23 year-old never got as far as having a medical.
Just minutes after news of Barkley turning down Chelsea broke, Everton’s majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri said: “The two clubs agreed a deal of £35m, I think personal terms were agreed and after the medical we heard from Paul Martin, his agent, that he [Barkley] changed his mind.
“He wants to reconsider his position during the January window. He is currently injured, so I think technically he will be with us because he is under contract for another year. It is a big surprise, but that is football.”
Asked if Barkley still has a role to play at Everton once he is fit, Moshiri added: “That is the difficulty. The No 10 position is very congested as we have Sigurdsson, Klaasen and Rooney. It is not easy to break into that now, but he [Barkley] is a good player, he is a world-class player but he needs to play.”
Chelsea had hoped to complete three deals in the final hours of the window, but had to settle for Drinkwater and Zappacosta.
Having already seen two bids, of £15m and £25m, rejected by Leicester, Chelsea made a new offer worth over £30m for Drinkwater, inclusive of add-ons, on Thursday morning.
That was later increased slightly to meet Leicester’s £35m valuation and Chelsea managed to file the necessary paperwork before the 11pm deadline, even though the move could not be confirmed then.
Chelsea targeted Drinkwater as a midfield reinforcement after the sale of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United, having originally looked into signing the 27 year-old a year earlier.
Head coach Antonio Conte wants to reunite Drinkwater with his former Leicester colleague N’Golo Kante and realises that his home-grown status will be invaluable as Chelsea combine Champions League and Premier League campaigns.
Having missed out on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who joined Liverpool, Chelsea switched targets to Italy international Zappacosta and quickly agreed a fee of £23m, plus add-ons, with Torino. Zappacosta flew to London on Thursday afternoon to complete the deal and signed a four-year contract.
“It is a dream for me to join Chelsea and play in the Premier League,” said Zappacosta. “I am very excited to be here and start working with the team. I hope I can show my quality to the coach, my team-mates and the supporters.”
Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo added: “Davide is a player of international calibre who Antonio Conte knows well and we have been aware of for some time. We are very pleased to be able to bring him to the club and believe he will become an important member of the squad.”
Other than trying to sign at least three players at the end of the window, Chelsea have also been in negotiations over trying to sell AWOL striker Diego Costa back to Atletico Madrid.
Spanish clubs have until midnight on Friday to sign players, just over 24 hours longer than English clubs.
Because of their transfer embargo, Atletico do not have to sign Costa within this window, but he would have to join the Spaniards before the deadline to be allowed to go on loan to another La Liga club until January.
CORRECTION: This article originally stated that Everton Football Club 'refused to negotiate' with Tottenham over the transfer of Ross Barkley. Everton in fact deny that they refused to negotiate, and the article has been amended to reflect this.