I'm a big fan of Gareth Barry and nothing would please me more than if he goes on to surpass Lampard and Giggs and sets a new high for Premier League appearances. He's been a fantastic signing for Everton and thoroughly deserves the plaudits he receives.
The sad thing thing is that he isn't getting any younger and sooner or later, we have to find the right successor to him in the midfield engine room. Tuesday night kind of demonstrated that a natural successor within the current ranks is not glaringly apparent.
Cesc Fabregas is allegedly heading for the Chelsea exit door in January having been told by Antonio Conte that he can go… so could he be the perfect successor to Gareth Barry as the brain in the Everton midfield?
Back in 2004 Arsene Wenger blooded a young 17-year old Spaniard by the name of Cesc Fabregas into his Arsenal team. Fabregas was an instant success and became a mainstay of Wengers’ Gunners for seven seasons before returning to his first club Barcelona for three seasons ahead of signing for Chelsea.
In his time he’s won the FA Cup, La Liga, a Copa del Rey, a UEFA Super Cup, two European Championships, a FIFA World Cup, a Premier League title and a League Cup. Throw in over a hundred caps for Spain and a goal per game ratio of one in five and you have a pretty damned good footballer who is still only 29.
Fabregas - in my opinion - would be a perfect fit for Everton and successor to Gareth Barry to anchor the midfield, using vision and precision passing to release and feed the likes of Ross Barkley and Romelu Lukaku.
Fabregas is a marvellous incisive and destructive passer of the ball, he has superb vision, can play box-to-box and is no mean taker of free kicks in and around the opposition penalty area… and he’s a proven winner and that is a quality and trait we simply have to attract to the club.
He is already being linked with potential January moves to Juventus or AC Milan, but surely this is a player or at the very least the type of player that Everton should be having serious designs upon signing?
It seems that Conte doesn’t fancy Fabregas with amongst his reasons, ‘Fabregas isn’t quick’. Well, Gareth Barry is hardly lightning and he still performs effectively… and when you’ve got a brain in your head, vision and an ability to put the ball perfectly into the path of a team-mate then the need for blistering pace can - to some extent - be sacrificed.
When Roberto Martinez signed veteran midfield Gareth Barry on loan from Manchester City at the last knockings of his first transfer window, eyebrows were raised. Barry though had a magnificent debut season in a royal blue shirt with a succession of classy performances as the Blues recorded their best ever points total in finishing fifth and qualifying for Europe.
His second season wasn’t quite as good, but last season despite some poor team performances, he again set the standard and quite rightly was judged to be Player of the Year in the eyes of both his fellow players and supporters.
Gareth Barry is a superb example of how a modern day footballer should look after himself. He rarely gets injured, rarely loses form and therefore plays at a consistently high level. And now with Ronald Koeman having added the youth and energy of Idrissa Gana Gueye, Barry has someone to do the running for him and ease the load on his aging frame.
Gareth Barry is approaching 36-years of age and even with his dedication to conditioning and fitness, the sands of time will soon begin to trickle on his stellar career, and Everton need to find a new midfield general with at least the same level of consistency or indeed higher.
Weigh up the attributes of Gareth Barry and Cesc Fabregas… they’ve both got good vision, both can pass, neither have great pace, their team mates have confidence in them but above all, they ooze class and quality on the ball.
If I could spend five minutes with Steve Walsh and Ronald Koeman, I would urge them as politely and forcefully as possible to give serious thought to signing Cesc Fabregas in the January window…
We still need a statement of intent, signing Fabregas would tick that box.
