Chelsea man was offered to West Brom on loan, claims report

James Holland
Ross Barkley Chelsea

Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley was offered to Championship side West Brom during the summer, according to a report.

Barkley moved to Stamford Bridge for a £15million fee back in January 2018.

He has since struggled to become a regular starter with the Blues and was shipped out to Aston Villa last term.


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According to The Telegraph, Barkley’s representatives were hoping to engineer a similar loan spell in the recent transfer window.

They offered the 27-year-old to Valerien Ismael’s West Brom. The Baggies were keen to get a deal over the line but could not afford to pay his £110,000-a-week salary.

The transfer fell through as Chelsea were not willing to subsidise his wages for the campaign.

Barkley now faces the prospect of spending the next few months on the bench. He is surplus to requirements as Thomas Tuchel can already rely on Jorginho, N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic in central midfield.

The Englishman, capped 33 times by the Three Lions, also likes to operate further up the pitch. But Chelsea’s impressive squad depth means he is unlikely to feature regularly in those areas either.

Barkley’s contract expires in June 2023. That means he could be sold next summer so the club do not risk losing him on a free transfer.

Meanwhile, Tuchel has backed Timo Werner to succeed up front alongside new signing Romelu Lukaku.

The German told reporters: “I am sure that we will find games and solutions where we play with both of them (Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku).

“We did already and Timo and Romelu can be a good fit together. Timo loves to play around a reference up front and Romelu is clearly our reference up front being a tall and physical player.

“The most important is he finds his rhythm and confidence and joy and makes his point and makes his way into the team. The players are in charge to take their positions and fight for their positions and once they have it to not give it away.

“We are very happy that he scored and played (for Germany in the international break) and on we go. We have not too many players but we have players with high quality and high ambition and Timo is clearly a guy that we count on and that is absolutely necessary we have him on high level.”