Tottenham to launch £20m for Ross Barkley but face competition from Chelsea

Tottenham Hotspur are ready to bid £20m (€21.8m, $25.7m) for Everton midfielder Ross Barkley but will have to fend off competition from Chelsea to secure the England international.

Spurs have closely monitored Barkley's situation at Everton for a while and are understood to be set to table their opening offer, despite the fact the 23-year-old will be out of action for approximately three months after injuring his hamstring in training.

According to the Telegraph, Spurs could pay £20m up-front with up to £8m worth of add-ons to be potentially added to the deal. However, while the midfielder has been linked with a move to North London for most of the summer, Spurs face competition from Chelsea, who are expected to test Everton's resolve with a bid of their own.

Barkley has been subject of transfer speculation throughout the summer after refusing to sign a new deal at Goodison Park, as Everton manager Ronald Koeman said last month that the England international was certain to leave Merseyside.

However, while Koeman is willing to let Barkley go, Everton's £50m price-tag appeared to have put off any potential suitors and last week the former Southampton manager admitted the club was yet to receive a bid for the midfielder.

That, however, could be about to change as Barkley's injury means Everton can no longer command a fee around the £30m mark they were still hoping to secure a few weeks ago, let alone the £50m price-tag they put on the midfielder at the beginning of the summer.

Daniel Levy, the Tottenham chairman, was adamant he would not pay over £25m for Barkley but now believes a £20m bid with around £8m in add-ons could be enough to tempt Everton to sell. To finance some of that fee, Spurs could use the £4.5m they received from Swansea for Gyfli Sigurdsson's move to Everton, as the North Londoners had a 10% sell-on clause on the Iceland international.

Tottenham would represent an attractive destination for Barkley, given Mauricio Pochettino's record in developing youngsters. However, the England international, who scored scored five goals in 36 Premier League games last term, would face stiff competition to get into the starting XI ahead of Christian Eriksen, Mousa Dembele and Dele Alli.

Spurs came undone against the reigning Premier League champions Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday (20 August) despite dominating for large parts of the game and Pochettino is desperate to bolster his attacking options.

Across the capital, Antonio Conte has been even more vocal than his Spurs counterpart in demanding reinforcements and Chelsea, who have the advantage of a less rigid wage structure than their London rivals, could offer Barkley up to £100,000-a-week.