Ross Barkely’s contract expires in 2018 and as of yet, he’s still not agreed to an extension and Ronald Koeman has given the England international one week to make up his mind about his future.
As reported by Chris Bascombe of the Telegraph, the Blues’ boss is giving the 23-year-old until the end of the season to tell the club what he intends to do as he needs to go into the summer knowing exactly who will, and won’t, be in his squad for the 2017/18 campaign.
When asked about how long Barkley has to make up his mind, Koeman said:
It is still one week eh? Time for him to decide because the board is already working a long time to sign Ross for a longer period. It is up to the player because we won’t wait until August. It needs to be next week, because if we go for a holiday we need to know if we need to sell the player. If you wait so much time then you have doubts. I like to work with players who like to stay. It is up to the player – he needs to make a decision.
Roomful Lukaku’s future is also under question and it would be a massive blow for Everton to lose two of their best players in one summer so the club have a big job on their hands to convince both that their futures should remain at Goodison Park.
