Ross Barkley

[Steero113]

If Barkley comes out and plays well the rest of the games and at the end of the season Dean says he's had long covid this entire time, does that constitute enough of a reason as to why he was poor for 3 months? 

Would that be enough for us to consider him at £20m?

[Villan_of_oz]

2 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

If Barkley comes out and plays well the rest of the games and at the end of the season Dean says he's had long covid this entire time, does that constitute enough of a reason as to why he was poor for 3 months? 

Would that be enough for us to consider him at £20m?

Not for me, there were clear signs of on no effort and poor attitude on a few occasions. These issues have nothing to do with Covid.

However, I only ever want what's best for Villa and if Ross performances continue to improve and the club see fit to take the gamble, then I will get behind him.

My main concern is does he actually want to play for us long term?

He'd have to take a pay cut too, imo.

If we can get him for 20ish mill, he accepts decent wages and he actually wants to be here, then happy days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CVByrne]

If his form recovers and the price is right (which it won't be, Chelsea get top dollar for their sales) I'd sign him. There has been a wider dip in form since Covid outbreak for us. So he's not alone

[MrSmirch]

52 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

If Barkley comes out and plays well the rest of the games and at the end of the season Dean says he's had long covid this entire time, does that constitute enough of a reason as to why he was poor for 3 months? 

Would that be enough for us to consider him at £20m?

Long covid is complete speculation.

[Steero113]

3 minutes ago, MrSmirch said:

Long covid is complete speculation.

It was a speculative question to which you did not offer an answer. 

[Sulberto21]

It's all a ruse to lure Chelsea into selling him on the cheap. Next season he'll finally fulfill his potential. Somewhere.

[briny_ear]

2 hours ago, Steero113 said:

If Barkley comes out and plays well the rest of the games and at the end of the season Dean says he's had long covid this entire time, does that constitute enough of a reason as to why he was poor for 3 months? 

Would that be enough for us to consider him at £20m?

We have no idea what has been going on in Ross’s life since he came to Villa, though it seems pretty clear had has been having a troubled time.

The striking thing for me is that Smith has stuck with him when he could quite easily just have ditched him.

So it seems he thinks Ross has qualities worth supporting.

[sparrow1988]

I'm torn. At first I thought - he's going well. He was taking a lot of the pressure off of Grealish which was a massive addition to the way that we played early in the season. Granted he wasn't perfect, but he was in theory a name on the teamsheet that the other team had to keep an eye on because he can create something out of nothing given space. This allowed Grealish and others to flourish. Then he gets injured. Shit, let's see what he is like when he comes back.

Back from injury and he gets thrown in to a run of what felt like a game every 2 days. I mean there wasn't even time for the same arguments to be repeated over and over in the Dean Smith thread between games (what a wonderful time that was). So I was thinking - give him a bit of time, let him get training properly again, regain a bit of fitness and then we'll see. I had just given up on him (I think around the Wolves game) and then gradually over the last couple of weeks he was getting a little bit better every game, and then he plays like he did on Saturday without Grealish and then I ended up feeling like this...

 

 

All in all, it's a tricky one. Can we afford to turn our noses up at the opportunity of signing him in the hope of getting someone better to work in tandem with Grealish and that enables Grealish and the rest to play like they did early in the season? Or do we take a risk on a player who we know is prone to injuries and evidently takes time to get firing/mentally recover after suffering an injury setback? It's definitely not an easy one for the decision makers at the club.

[MessiWillSignForVilla]

3 hours ago, Steero113 said:

If Barkley comes out and plays well the rest of the games and at the end of the season Dean says he's had long covid this entire time, does that constitute enough of a reason as to why he was poor for 3 months? 

Would that be enough for us to consider him at £20m?

For me yes, if that's the case (Although it seems too speculative for me to be true). Too many people think that Covid is something people recover from quickly, which I can say from personal experience it isn't. Then you have the below from Nuno today;

And this from an NBA player a few weeks ago;

It's a **** awful disease where your own immune system attacks your lungs, of course people are going to suffer long term from it, like any serious disease.

[Rightdm00]

1 hour ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

For me yes, if that's the case (Although it seems too speculative for me to be true). Too many people think that Covid is something people recover from quickly, which I can say from personal experience it isn't. Then you have the below from Nuno today;

And this from an NBA player a few weeks ago;

It's a **** awful disease where your own immune system attacks your lungs, of course people are going to suffer long term from it, like any serious disease.

Honestly it's make the most sense from a speculative standpoint. Does his hamstring which causes a loss of conditioning then picks up COVID and can't shake the symptoms for a couple months. 

Otherwise we are to believe he just decided to be a lazy f*ucker after starting the season on fire. Then all of a sudden he just decides to start playing again. If he finishes the season the way he started then some type of injury/long covid makes the most sense for his loss of form during the middle 3rd of the season. 

[Sulberto21]

Whether we sign him or not I'm glad we've had a player of his calibre and ability in the squad. His ability is such that other players at the club would have picked up a thing or two. 

It hasn't worked for whatever reason but the way he helped Jack rip Liverscum a couple of new proverbials I will forever be thankful for that. However in the last 4 games his passing has been good and has helped us keep the ball better. 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

4 hours ago, Villan_of_oz said:

Not for me, there were clear signs of on no effort and poor attitude on a few occasions. These issues have nothing to do with Covid.

However, I only ever want what's best for Villa and if Ross performances continue to improve and the club see fit to take the gamble, then I will get behind him.

My main concern is does he actually want to play for us long term?

He'd have to take a pay cut too, imo.

If we can get him for 20ish mill, he accepts decent wages and he actually wants to be here, then happy days. 

 

I'm not speculating that he has felt the after effects of something like covid, I have absolutely no idea.

But the bit in bold puzzled me, how do you know this? I had a nasty virus a few year back which knocked me out cold for a few months. The lethargy I felt was both physically and mentally draining. I wasn't myself for half a year basically and I am generally a fit and healthy fella. 

[MrSmirch]

4 hours ago, Steero113 said:

It was a speculative question to which you did not offer an answer. 

It's a ludicrous thing to speculate about.

[Dodgyknees]

2 hours ago, MessiWillSignForVilla said:

For me yes, if that's the case (Although it seems too speculative for me to be true). Too many people think that Covid is something people recover from quickly, which I can say from personal experience it isn't. Then you have the below from Nuno today;

And this from an NBA player a few weeks ago;

It's a **** awful disease where your own immune system attacks your lungs, of course people are going to suffer long term from it, like any serious disease.

I don’t have LC, but I’ve only just been able to walk more than 2 miles, I used to be able to do 15-20 easily. It’s **** nasty.

[sne]

Him potentially having long term Covid might if true be part of the reason he's been poor.

But it would also be yet another reason as to why we should not sign him. Who knows how long anyone is affected by it. Not worth the gamble.

[Steero113]

6 minutes ago, MrSmirch said:

It's a ludicrous thing to speculate about.

Is it? 

Seeing as 90% of this entire forum is based on opinion and speculation I would suggest its the furthest thing from the literal definition of 'ludicrous'. 

Many others on this site have suggested it is perhaps even a logical reason as to why both Barkley and a large proportion of the playing squad have put in lack-luster performances after the Covid shutdown. 

I posed a question to gauge people's interest in buying Ross at a certain price IF he keeps up this sort of renewed form for the rest of the season... 

Hardly ludicrous

[Villan_of_oz]

3 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I'm not speculating that he has felt the after effects of something like covid, I have absolutely no idea.

But the bit in bold puzzled me, how do you know this? I had a nasty virus a few year back which knocked me out cold for a few months. The lethargy I felt was both physically and mentally draining. I wasn't myself for half a year basically and I am generally a fit and healthy fella. 

I was more referring to the signs of his poor attitude, when being subbed etc. Also i believe if he was that badly affected by Covid that he could barely jog let alone run, then Dean made a big mistake naming him in the team.

There is lethargy and then there is taking the piss. The two are very different in my humble opinion.

[Jareth]

Not sure we can know if the bad performances were due to injury or not - but you'd trust Smith to know. If it was fitness then I hope we sign him. If it was lack of effort, then I trust we will not sign him. 

[Tommo_b]

22 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Not sure we can know if the bad performances were due to injury or not - but you'd trust Smith to know. If it was fitness then I hope we sign him. If it was lack of effort, then I trust we will not sign him. 

Same as this. 

[Indigo]

5 hours ago, Jareth said:

Not sure we can know if the bad performances were due to injury or not - but you'd trust Smith to know. If it was fitness then I hope we sign him. If it was lack of effort, then I trust we will not sign him. 

With you on that. Personally I think his performances were so off that my hunch is that there was more at play than just a questionable attitude given how cumbersome and incapable of the basics he was for a period, but as you say I'm sure we'll have more of an idea based on the decisions made by those who actually have the answers on this one.