Ross Barkley celebrating statuesque in the Gwladys Street was the perfect way to end a turbulent week for Everton’s most talked about player since Wayne Rooney. The hive of people out to attack Barkley has been disturbed and for such an inoffensive young-player the levels of derision he has attracted from all quarters over the last 12 months has been beyond harsh. Just like Kopites hoping for global-warming to swamp Everton’s new Bramley-Moore stadium once it’s built, the camera-shy scouser has been in danger of drowning in a sea of negativity and jealousy.

Raised in Wavertree by a single mother, Barkley has had it harder than most since being picked up by his boyhood club. Bussing it to training and playing without the all-important impetus of a father on the side-lines, the club also had to support his mother financially when the healthy diet they placed him on proved too much for her to afford. A double-leg break when playing in the academy curtailed his progress to the first team as he was on the cusp of breaking through. It was feared he may never fully recover, but he did. Loaned out to Leeds but the sent back by Neil Warnock labelled as a liability who couldn’t defend. A succession of other dinosaur-minded managers have concluded the same since, including a shuddering roll-call of disastrous England managers in Hodgson, Allardyce, and Southgate. For these managers creativity is a risk they aren’t prepared to take. He is currently the English player with the most assists in the league.

A victim of his own fans’ expectations has seen him booed at Goodison in the past, causing murder between some fans in the stands. Hung drawn and quartered in the media, despised by Liverpool fans, and criticised by Leon Osman, a player that perfectly symbolise a decade of Everton mediocrity. But Barkley achieved the Holy Grail by attracting the venom of surely-must-be-a-kiddy-fiddler Kelvin McKenzie who pulled a cunt’s trick by slandering scousers yet again on the eve of the Hillsborough anniversary. Anybody who rubs that paper up the wrong way is doing something right. Although I believed some fans were putting the club in a difficult position demanding to ban The S*n, with the tricky territory that comes with banning any form of ‘journalism’, McKenzie made it an easy call for the club and they have done the right thing.

They say diamonds are formed under pressure so we can only hope that Ross shows more of the strength of character he already has to get him to this point in his life and that we end up with a hardened, sharper, and brighter Barkley who knows that failure and feeding the circling vultures is not an option. The only way to hit back is by lifting trophies, at Everton.