Ross Barkley: The Enigma

A quick search on twitter suggests the Sheffield Wednesday fans love him, and really want him until christmas, so he must be doing fairly well. A premier league loan spell would certainly tell us more (if he isn't going to get an extended run in the first team), although hopefully his appearance record would look more like Cleverley at Wigan or Wilshere at Bolton, and less like Mceachran at Swansea!

Ultimately I'm still holding out hope that he will progress enough to make a real impact for us. He is certainly more akin stylistically to the football we play now than to how we have played before!

Apologies for the rambling nature of this (extended) comment!

Agreeing with you, I suspect only a serious injury list will see him get a chance this season, certainly if it goes well and we are looking for a high place. Safety and a few 'nothing' games to go, and maybe.

There is a lot said about bringing young players on. You can't generalise, but those that get the chance usually have a particular characteristic a team can use. Raw speed comes to mind. Rooney was built like a pit-bull at 15, but he also had a special set of skills.

Barkley hasn't. He's OK. But take the TWebber critics of Ossie, and offer them Ross for the season in that position instead of Leon. I don't think there would be too many takers.

Good - as usual - that Moyes was there. OK, he's very well paid, so so he should be. But that's not it with DM is it.

He definitely doesn't like a tackle. Most probably down to his leg break.

Hopefully this loan move and maybe others will iron out all the silly mistakes because he has the makings of a very good player.

Granted, you could argue that they're comparing him to the Championship fare they're used to seeing and we Blues might therefore critique him more harshly but they've also seen him more than we have this season...

He's also still a teenager, let's not forget. Young players make mistakes and experience/playing time helps drum those errors out.

"He takes far too many mistakes for the Premier League".

Well, I'm not disputing he makes mistakes, but I have to ask, have you ever seen Phil Neville?

I'm a big fan of Phil the man, but ON the park, while at Everton, I've seen him (nb: an experienced international) hit hundreds of shitty passes, give away possession far too often, score own goals, miss tackles, get roasted, etc etc.

If it's about mistakes, Barkley is not alone.

A similar style of player as Wilshire and Ramsey.

Barkley is still very young, has almost no first team experience to back up his undoubted potential and I'm shocked to hear people say what he'll never be able to do. How about we give him an opportunity to develop those talents first?

I'd also agree with Eugene that if you look at Phil Neville or a few other players, they consistently play hospital balls, surrender possession, score own goals and just have all round general shoddy play. I've seen phil neville play really shit balls, then bawl out the player he "passed" to.

Remember back to when fellaini first joined as a young player. Lots of people basically saying he was shit. In fellaini's case he wasn't shit or that he lacked first team experience, just that he needed time to acclimatise and work with the coaches to get rid of his rough edges and get up to speed with the PL. Now he's talked about as one of the best centre mids in europe.

In Barkleys case, the kid has almost no first team experience to improve him....so no, he's not the finished article, but he never will be unless he gets given time on the pitch with our first team. I think at the moment he's certainly good enough for short cameo's in the PL during games where we're winning, but he's probably better off at a lower league side where he can get proper 90 minute games given Moyes reluctance to play him.

He did put in ONE great sliding tackle of note (first half, near touchline) so he does have it in him!

He also showed a good touch and at times great vision and going forward he was impressive. Tracking back it was a different story and he does have a lot to learn, but he was a central figure for Wednesday last night, particularly in the first half and the locals applaued every flick and spraying of the ball and they are the ones watching him week in week out at the moment - and they haven't won since August!

At 18 I think we have a potentially good player on our hands, don't forget David Beckham was out on loan at Preston before going on to have a decent playing career. You never know and we can live in hope. Fingers crossed.

It was a high tempo derby game and his manager David Moyes was also in the stands watching him.

If anything I think he lacks a little self-belief and confidence that Wayne Rooney had at a similar age , if I was his manager I would keep telling him that his ability is fine and try and get him to boss the game a little more.

His team-mates last night seem to believe in his ability as they often looked for him in tight midfield areas.

If he is looked after correctly , I can see no reason why the lad won't be a success at Everton.

Just can't see anything special about him at all hopefully Man City will and we'll have another 16 million to do some real biz.

This little highlight showed he is a special player, as sadly not many either try it or can pull it off. His weight of touch is nice, just makes the odd wrong choice or plays himself into trouble.

I find that both Barkley and Drenthe is no longer with us as a clear sign that Moyes is not prepared to take chances with young players who need time and guidance in order to shine. To be honest, I find it brutal the way these two were treated last season by Moyes.

He certainly has crushed the Ross Barkley we first saw against QPR, and once he had Donovan he threw Drenthe away like it meant nothing. Drenthe was ill treated along the way and got fed up, and that I can understand.

The problem is Moyes does not seem to care how he treats his young players. He has no problem with throwing Barkley under the bus, just like the ugly comment he made before Barkley joined Wednesday: "He will go and make his mistakes at a Championship level."

If anyone is in doubt any longer that Moyes lacks the ability to handle youngsters and nurture them into top class players then you clearly have not seen how it is supposed to be done. Look towards Arsenal and Wenger, Henry Fabregas, Van Persie and the list goes on, Wenger should be our next manager, he could really show us how he has the best youth development history in England.
Everton should strive to be more like Arsenal in that way, at least Moyes should take lessons on how to develop youngsters!!!!!

The one worry is the comments re his weight – I can't really see an excuse for this if he is overweight so hopefully this will also be looked at and improved, though at 18 his body is still maturing so it may be just nature.

If he has potential he didn't show much here. Has a way to go to match up to Wilshere and the likes. Having said that, Leeds and Michael (Chopper) Brown were taking no prisoners and Barkley was wisely doing simple things for the most part.

He still looks short on confidence which could have been the legacy left by his injury and he needs to get over that to succeed.

Your absolutely correct that he should play further forward, to make best use of his creative skills and keep him away from his big weakness i.e. defending.

Can't believe that someone thinks he's overweight, part of his stamina problem will be that he's built like a centre -back..

He has more raw talent than Gazza - in that he's two footed and a good header of the ball - just needs developing correctly, only problem for him is that it is david moyes.

Can see arsenal buying him this summer ala walcott and oxlade-chamberlain and developing him into a proper player.

Barclay is 18 and has alreadt got more vision than the rest of the side put together. The rest can be taught.

He's the real deal.

Anichebe is the only player that has been here for a long period that has come through the youth system, and I don't see much of an improvement in him since he first became a first team player.

Rodwell and Rooney were sold for megabucks , but Rodwell even accounting for injuries was never seriously considered a first team player whilst Rooney was a cast iron certainty to get into anybody's first team. Osman and Hibbert have done so but Hibbert had already been around the first team and Osman had to go out on loan to prove to DM that he was good enough , whilst perfectly good club servants they are hardly overblessed with talent.

So who else has made their mark at Everton coming through the ranks during David Moyes reign, Vaughan to a certain extent , Duffy possibly but I won't hold my breath, many more have fallen by the wayside , although to be fair to DM I can't think of any player who has been the one that got away.

This much vaunted youth system and the myth that youth will get its chance at Goodison is yet to be proven at least as far as first team regulars are concerned.

Howard Kendall oversaw half of the all conquering 80s team coming through the ranks at Goodison. Considering how empty our coffers are you would have hoped to have seen many more players, granted youth players turning into first team regulars is a hard thing to achieve , but obviuosly I don't know if any of the young players currently in the youth set up will make it into the first team.

I appreciate that DM has enough on his plate seemingly running the club almost single-handed , but as a club we need to put even more emphasis on bringing a greater number of youth players into the first team especially given our financial situation.

For this reason it is important that the likes of Berkley get all the experience they need even if depressingly it is to go on and play for somebody with deeper pockets than ours.