Chelsea midfield legend urges £50m England international to join the Premier League champions

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Chelsea legend Frank Lampard has urged Ross Barkley to join the Premier League champions.

Lampard became one of England’s finest midfielders after leaving West Ham for Chelsea in 2001.

The former New York City midfielder believes Barkley should follow his lead, and leave Everton to test himself at the highest level.

Barkley has just a year remaining on his current contract, and Everton manager Ronald Koeman has confirmed the club will sell the England international, who they value at £50m, as reported in the Daily Telegraph.

As reported by football.london, Lampard said, “Looking at it from the outside, he’s 23 now and he’s always had pockets of games where he’s done well and we talk about him.”

“His England career has done a bit of that as well because he’s never done that throughout a season, so maybe a change would be good for him.

“At some stage sometimes, I did it as a young lad at West Ham, you have to try and go out of your comfort zone and try something else. Everton fans might not want to hear that, but everybody moves on.”

Everton are yet to receive a concrete bid for Barkley, but Tottenham and more recently, Chelsea, have been linked with the player throughout the summer.

Lampard believes Barkley’s game will benefit from training with the Chelsea squad and the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard.

“While it does look like he’s going to leave now, he does need to go to a club where he can fulfill that talent”, continued Lampard.

“It’s all there, but he probably just needs to get a bit more out of himself. He’s at a young age and it seems that he wants to move.”

“If he comes to a team like Chelsea or Tottenham, the players around him will help him improve because he’ll see what it takes to go to the next level.”

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