Ross Barkley believes he was right to swap Everton for Chelsea

Having spent 13 years with the Toffees, Ross signed for the Blues in January 2018.

England international Ross Barkley made a switch from his boyhood club Everton, where he was plagued by off-field incidents in the winter transfer window last year. This led to considerable criticism from the Toffees faithful who thought Barkley was rushing with his decision and would not get ample game time in North London.

However, reality has panned out differently for Ross. He gets regular minutes for both club and country and scored his first international goals since 2015 against Montenegro a few days ago during the European Qualifiers.  

“I am away from my family and down in London by myself. I am in a totally different environment from Liverpool. I miss being with my family, it is totally different. It is how I am maturing as a person and a player. It is good,” said Ross.

Ross Barkley believes this experience at Stamford Bridge is making a man out of him.

“Yes, exactly”, he declared.

“Since I made the move it was good to challenge myself and win trophies and to improve as a player. I’ve changed compared to when I was 18, 19 or 20. My diet is much ­better. My ­approach to games is much better and I am going into them with the right ­preparation and I am more ­relaxed, rather than think about things too much,” said the 25-year-old Chelsea midfielder

This added confidence and improvement was certainly on show against Montenegro where he won the man-of-the-match for his efforts. Beyond the goals and assists, there was certainly a level of maturity in Ross’ play that wasn’t so evident before.

“It was my best performance for England,” said Barkley. “I came up with the two goals and had a hand in a couple of the goals, but the main thing was to come here and put in a positive performance.”

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Asked what has changed for him with England, Barkley replied to Sky: “Just believing in myself. Having confidence. My focus is to add something to the side and we performed really well.”

Blues faithful will be hopeful that Barkley keeps going strong on his momentum and provide the extra energy and resilience in midfield during the final stages of the season that has seen many highs and lows.