Tottenham have no business pursuing Ross Barkley

Tottenham, amidst dissipating rumours, have no intention of pursuing Everton’s Ross Barkley, who has been left out in the cold by Toffees manager Ronald Koeman. 

Rumours of Spurs interest in the English midfield are cooling, and logically so. Ryan previously wrote an article about the baseless rumours, his arguments all-but confirmed.  Barkley favours an advanced midfield position, precisely the spot Dele Alli, Tottenham’s two-time PFA Young Player of the Year, expertly patrols.

There’s no questioning how important depth is on top teams, particularly to those competing in the Champions League, and on numerous other domestic fronts. There is, however, no way Barkley would accept playing second fiddle, and that’s exactly what would happen if he joined Spurs.

Barkley isn’t the type of player who will happily sacrifice big-competition football to be a role player, no matter the likelihood of team success. Mauricio Pochettino is precisely the kind of manager that would extract the best from the enigmatic Evertonian, but Barkley desperately needs first-team football to thrive.

He’ll more likely end up at Manchester United or Chelsea, as both teams have more use for a quintessential attacking midfielder. And those teams aren’t worried about spending between £35-£50 million on a player whose influence on the first team isn’t guaranteed.

Barkley has most of the attributes – physicality, technique, passing ability, shooting prowess – to excel if provided an opportunity to play on an élite team replete with world-class players. Unfortunately, he’s not the right fit for Spurs, whose priorities lie in different areas of the pitch.

If it were anyone but Alli standing in his way, I’d suggest Spurs make a lowball offer to find out what Barkley is made of. He’d invariably fight his way into the first 11 in a team devoid of Alli and make the kind of splash everyone has waited years for.

But the 21-year-old Alli is already one of the best midfielder’s in Europe and he’s only getting better. I expect him to improve upon his 18-goal output from last season in 2017-18 and hit the 20-goal plateau for the first time of many in his budding career.

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Barkley, who has scored 21 goals in his last four seasons, simply can’t measure up. And while it’s not all about goals, Alli is head and shoulders above Barkley in all other discernible categories and has barely scratched the surface of his otherworldly potential.

It’s time any lingering or residual Barkley-to-Spurs rumours are well and truly put to bed.