Is Ross Barkley a worthwhile signing for Chelsea?

We’ve featured uMAXit Football’s excellent animated videos before, and this one they made last summer seems relevant to us today.

Now produced under the Tifo Football label, the brief video takes a look at Ross Barkley’s 2016-17 season and compares it to Christian Eriksen’s efforts at Spurs and Cesc Fàbregas’s efforts at Chelsea during the same time. Barkley was linked heavily with the two London sides in the summer, so it makes sense to pick players from those two clubs and in the positions that Barkley is capable of playing (either attacking midfield or a slightly deeper central midfield).

The video concentrates on Opta’s ‘chances created’ statistic, which has plenty of issues but as far as metrics available, is just about the only one. So take Barkley’s chance creation with a grain of salt, but note the video’s overall conclusions that while Barkley is not as consistently prolific as Eriksen and not as impactful as Fàbregas, he’d be a useful squad acquisition at £30m.

And we’re only paying £15m!

Another side note to keep in mind is that Barkley was planned by Chelsea for the summer, part of the promised three signings for the final week of the transfer window. He was already supposed to be here; we’re just finishing the job, and at half-price. He’s still young, homegrown, and could be useful this season and perhaps beyond, especially if he recovers his previous promise. And if not, he joins the line of Sidwell and Smertins and Jarosiks and moves on before you can blink twice and collect the profits.