ROSS BARKLEY’S £35 million (€38m) transfer to Chelsea collapsed because Antonio Conte had turned his phone off on deadline day, according to Joey Barton.
Everton had accepted a bid for the 23-year-old before the midfielder travelled to London to complete a medical in the late stages of the window.
A deal fell through, however, and Barton believes the reason is because of the Blues boss.
I heard a really interesting thing about what happened with the Ross Barkley transfer. Conte turned his phone off and Barkley’s representatives were trying to contact him,” Barton said on TalkSport.
“He wanted to say ‘look, where am I going to play’, and Conte turned his phone off. That is why Barkley got cold feet and never signed.
He thought, ‘well, if the manager isn’t answering the phone to me he clearly doesn’t want me’, and that is why he went back to Everton.”
Barkley’s current Everton deal expires at the end of the 2017-18 campaign and a January exit from Goodison Park for a cheaper amount remains a possibility.
The England international had also been linked with Tottenham in the off season with reports Everton boss Ronald Koeman didn’t have him in his first-team plans.
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The 3rd fight will always be there, but to build the hype again Nate should try to get a win under his belt in the meantime and Conor should defend the title against Khabib or Ferguson. Maybe Nate could fight whichever of those 2 Conor doesn’t.
Aldo deserved a rematch first up after his 13s loss to McG. Dana is disgrace for treating Aldo like that.
Any coverage about the Kovalev-Ward fight at the weekend lads? Best fight in Boxing in many a year and two undefeated lads, at the peak of the prime and at the peak of the sport fighting each other.
Kov-Ward and then Loma-Walters the following week. 3 great fight weekends in a row.
Oh get over it
Go suck on a lemon Diaz!
Nate “the excuse” Diaz
Nate Diaz > mcgregor I know most McGregor fans won’t be able to decipher that one
“I ain’t begging for no fight” so does he not want the fight then?