Ross Barkley for Moussa Sissoko; is it worth it?

Recently reports have emerged that Everton boss Ronald Koeman has grown tired of Ross Barkley and is looking to finally secure a player that had eluded him in the summer, Moussa Sissoko.

It’s a surprising rumour to have emerged before the January transfer window, given that Sissoko has only recently joined us and even more recently been putting in good displays (vs Hull & vs Burnley) and Barkley is a born and bred, well-loved Everton academy graduate capable of changing games at the drop of a hat.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Koeman has been handed a £50m ‘warchest’ in January and a swap deal for Sissoko could pay huge dividends, given Barkley’s fairly high wage and Sissoko’s huge transfer tag evidently not being a part of plans.

Also recently reported widely was the rumour that Everton have won the bidding war for Manchester United midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin who was a part of Koeman’s Southampton team and could be viewed as the perfect piece of the puzzle for Barkley.On the face of it, it seems like if you offer that deal to any Spurs fan, we’d take it every day of the week and twice on Sundays, but is the deal really worth it?

This season has been viewed as a disappointing one so far for Ross Barkley, having only registered two assists and 3 goals in 17 games thus far, it is widely believed Koeman has given him every chance to succeed.

Barkley had a much better season last year under Roberto Martinez, who played him close to Romelu Lukaku, forming a dangerous partnership which saw him end the season with 8 goals and 8 assists out of 36 games.

Doesn’t sound like he’s far off track right? But Koeman would have you believe that stats might not be the determining factor of his success;

“He needs to improve the tactical aspect of his football, out of his position, he needs to be more clinical and have more creativity in the offensive part of the team but he is working hard on that and trying to get the best out of himself”

“I had the same stories in Holland with players who, when they were 16 or 17, they were too good in the academy, they didn’t really have competition but because they were stronger or they were a better player than the rest.

Sissoko on the other hand has had an extremely disappointing start to the season given his huge price tag in the summer, but as mentioned above, he’s starting to find a small semblance of a stride in the Spurs shirt.

Given Sissoko’s performance thus far I don’t understand why we wouldn’t at least consider this transfer, on any other day, pursuing Barkley would cost upwards of £40m, so if it’s a straight swap or Everton end up parting with £10m or so then surely we would jump at the chance?

The other potential stumbling block could be the alignment of wages, Spurs don’t deal with high wages for a lot of players, Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris assumed to be two players in the £100,000+ bracket and Sissoko on £70,000.

While both players have had a disappointing season thus far, it’s not completely out of the question for either to come good regardless of team.

Personally, I think when presented the chance, we should jump at the possibility, Sissoko has struggled to get into the swing of how things work under Pochettino and also, he once called Arsenal ‘beautiful’ not something easily forgotten by Spurs fans.