West Ham target ‘audacious’ loan bid for Chelsea midfielder — report

The man who gave Ross Barkley his professional debut as well as the first 18 of his 179 appearances for Everton is apparently “eyeing” a potential reunion. David Moyes, who recently returned to West Ham United as manager, is “targeting” and “audacious” loan bid for the Chelsea midfielder according to the Mirror’s Darren Lewis.

Moyes, the long-time Everton manager whose career took a drastic turn for the worse after his high-profile failure at the impossible job of succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, was recently re-appointed by the Hammers to try to save their season and prevent relegation. So far, Moyesy’s doing just fine, with two wins from three games in all competitions. But he needs reinforcements, and that’s were Barkley could potentially come into play.

Unfortunately for our cross-town rivals, Chelsea are apparently “refusing” to entertain this possibility at the moment, which isn’t too surprising given our need for squad depth in midfield and the injury to Ruben Loftus-Cheek that could yet keep him for a good while longer. Barkley himself has had a few issues (on and off the pitch), but he played very well against Burnley last weekend, his second start in just as many games after failing to feature in 17 straight, and that could underline both our intent to keep him and others’ intent to look to acquire him.

It would be surprising to see anything happen with Barkley this month, though a summer move cannot be ruled out at the moment. He will have three years left on his contract still, but he’s not been as involved this season as last at all, and that could be a harbinger of future developments for the 26-year-old former prodigy.