Everton Sign Barry On A Permanent Basis
Everton recently made the signing of Gareth Barry into a permanent one after the former Manchester City player impressed in his loan spell last season. The player has reportedly not cost much, as Everton have paid only around £ 2 million for his services. The experience of the 33-year-old will be a crucial factor behind Everton challenging for the top four this campaign. The club have spent huge amounts of money on players like Romelu Lukaku in a bid to push for a Champions League place. Barry was instrumental in the club’s fifth-place finish last season.
This is provided Everton with a return to Europa league football after a gap of four years. Ahead of their European campaign in a long time, Barry says that it will be important that the club do well in both competitions. He has accepted that there will be more number of matches due to the presence of European football, but the club has signed additional players in order to cope with this new challenge. Barry also says that European football will be of huge importance for the younger players at the club like Ross Barkley. The 22-year-old recently signed a new contract to ward off interest from Chelsea and Manchester United.
“We always want to improve but we have to be careful as it is a different season playing European football. There are going to be a lot of games in the Europa League and a lot of the younger players have not experienced European football but we are positive,” said Barry about the team’s upcoming Europa League campaign. Barry signed a three-year contract upon his return to Goodison Park on a permanent basis. This is likely to see him end his career at Merseyside after having started out as an Aston Villa youngster in 1998.