Former England striker Dean Ashton believes Everton’s Ross Barkley will join Chelsea this season.

Barkley was undergoing a deadline day medical at Chelsea when the plug was pulled on the £35 million transfer, but Ashton doesn’t think it was Barkley who said no.

“I think the medical probably was going ahead,” Ashton told Sky Sports.

“They’ve looked at the injury he’s got and they’ve said it’s probably going to be late November until he’s fit.

“It could be as simple as saying ‘let’s leave it for now – if we can buy you for less in January, that gives you more wages’.

“I’d be happy with that if I was Ross. You know you’re not going to play until Christmas properly. It makes no difference really.

“I can’t see him going all the way down to London, agreeing medical terms, maybe to start a medical, and suddenly thinking ‘no, I don’t fancy this’.

“I can’t see that – I think something’s changed, either between the medical or between the price, the wages.”