Everton midfielder Ross Barkey has set his sights on finishing above Liverpool this season – but admits he would never join them.
Barkley’s resurgence for the Blues recently caught the eye of Anfield legend Phil Thompson who admitted the 23-year-old would flourish at his former club.
But ahead of Sunday’s trip to Tottenham, the England international insists that he would never consider leaving Everton in order to cross the Stanley Park divide.
“You’ve got to take positives from it – he must really believe that I’m a good player!” he told Sky Sports.
“But that would never happen. I would never cross the line to go to the other side.
“They’re not in the best of form and don’t look too confident at the minute, whereas we are on a strong run.
“All the lads are looking forward to the derby [on April 1] because we haven’t won there for a while and we’ve got a really good team spirit right now.
“Hopefully we can do the job.”
Everton could potentially cut the current points gap with Liverpool down to just two points with a win at Spurs this weekend after their local rivals entertain Arsenal.
And Barkley sees no reason why Ronald Koeman’s side could not emerge as Merseyside’s superior team for the first time in over four seasons.
He added: “Five points? There isn’t much in that.
“As an Everton fan, that’s one of my goals, to finish above Liverpool this season.”