Ross Barkley needed to escape the “pressure” of life at Chelsea and become a “big fish at Aston Villa”, claims Kevin Phillips, with the England international told he could turn out to be “the signing of the season”.
Eyebrows were raised when the 26-year-old opted to swap life at Stamford Bridge for that at Villa Park over the summer.
A loan move had been mooted for some time, but few expected Barkley to trade a Premier League title hopeful for a club that only avoided relegation out of the top tier on the final day of the 2019-20 campaign.