When Barkley signed his last deal in 2014 we'd just concluded our highest PL points tally and finished 5th. We looked like we might just be going places and it was effectively his breakthrough season. Yet, instead of signing for the standard five years you might expect for a 20 year old, he signed for four. There's no chance EFC would've insisted on four years over five - it was Barkley and his management. From that moment on it's always been apparent that he saw himself leaving at some point.
It's a shame he ran down his deal. He's comfortably worth treble what we're receiving in the present market. But I'm not particularly arsed about him going as it's been on the cards for years now. He's a very good player in a lot of ways and would be very useful right now, but he still has major flaws in his game. He'll have to improve in both quality and consistency if he's going to get regular game time.
Losing top young players is always a blow, though. Sadly, it's what happens when you have crap owners, crap directors and crap managers for years.
