West Ham Fan TV’s Dan Lawless has taken to Twitter to show his discontent over claims the Hammers could make a move for free agent Ross Barkley.
ExWHUemployee has recently claimed that West Ham could soon approach the midfielder after David Moyes refused to rule out a move for a player to whom he handed his debut during their time together at Everton.
West Ham are the league’s third-biggest spenders at the time of writing after splashing out on Lucas Paqueta and seven other new signings across the summer, so looking at the free agent market could well make sense – especially if it’s for a player that Moyes will know well.
However, Lawless is very much set against the idea of bringing Barkley to the London Stadium, as he said: “I’m totally against Barkley on a free. He’s not better than anyone we have [in] the positions he would play, his loan spell at Villa was a disaster, too.
“There’s also the fact that he is on £200k a week, most he should be on his £50k.”
Should West Ham sign Barkley?
Yes!
No!
TIF Thoughts on Barkley potentially joining the Hammers…
As Lawless has pointed out in his tweet, Barkley was on astronomical wages at Chelsea, so he would almost certainly have to take a major pay cut if he was to join West Ham and he certainly wouldn’t be in a strong position to argue otherwise given his lack of impact in the Premier League in recent years, managing just 18 goal involvements since 2018.
However, given that West Ham are set to be competing on four fronts this season, having squad depth in a lot of positions wouldn’t likely go amiss, and Barkley would arrive as an England international and experienced in European club competitions.
Therefore, if a deal is there to be had that makes financial sense and Barkley wants to motivate himself and work under a former manager, in our view, he might not be the worst signing West Ham have made in recent years.