Tottenham still interested in Ross Barkley as Everton are prepared to compromise on asking price

Tottenham’s reported interest in Ross Barkley has been a thing for a long time. Mauricio Pochettino clearly likes the player, but the £50 million price tag has always loomed as the main obstacle to completing the transfer.

£50 million is an astronomical fee for any player of Barkley’s quality, especially given that there is only one year left on his current deal. But now a transfer seems more likely as Everton are reportedly ready to lower their asking price with Tottenham still interested.

The Independent has more...

Tottenham Hotspur are preparing another push to sign Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.

The two clubs have been unable to agree a fee so far this summer but Everton are happy to sell a player who has just one year left on his contract and is not signing a new one.

Mauricio Pochettino is a long-term admirer of Barkley and believes he can make the most of the England international’s obvious talent. So far Everton and Daniel Levy have been very far apart on their valuations of Barkley, with Levy believing that Everton’s £50million valuation is unrealistic for a player in the last year of his contract.

But there is a willingness on all sides to reach an agreement before the end of the transfer window. Everton would rather cash in on Barkley now than risk losing him for training compensation next summer.

Everton have already spent quite a bit this transfer window, and are still being linked with a big-money move for Swansea’ Gylfi Sigurdsson. Selling Barkley to Spurs could help the Toffees further fund their moves for Siggy and others.

Tottenham are the only Premier League club yet to make a signing this window, but signing Barkley would still be a very controversial move among Spurs fans. He really hasn’t improved that much since breaking into the Everton first team in the 2013-14 season. Even if Spurs get the price down to £30 million, that’s still too much for a player who really isn’t that great and would be available on a free transfer the following summer.

But this transfer story won’t go away. For whatever reason, Pochettino and company are clearly interested in bringing Barkley to North London.

There’s still a long way to go before a deal is done, but it feels like it’s going to happen eventually. If Barkley becomes a Spurs player he deserves our support, but until then it’s very fair to question this possible signing.

UPDATE: And now, this: