Hatters boss left pleasantly surprised by former England star Barkley's impact off the pitch at Luton

Hatters boss Rob Edwards has been left pleasantly surprised with the impact former Everton and Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley has had off the pitch since his arrival at Kenilworth Road in the summer.

The 29-year-old was Town’s marquee signing of the transfer window as having had a career that saw him start at Everton as a youngster, where he won the first of his 33 England caps, he then earned a £15m move to Chelsea in 2018.

Despite winning the FA Cup and Europa League, Barkley’s time at Stamford Bridge didn’t really work out in the manner he would have wanted, spending the latter stages of the 2020-21 campaign on loan at tomorrow’s opponents Aston Villa.

He then went to France, playing for Ligue 1 side Nice last term, eventually heading to Bedfordshire on a free transfer when his contract expired.

Although Barkley’s on-field efforts have been limited so far, with two starts and two substitute outings, it has been his work away from the pitch where he has really caught Edwards’ eye.

The Town manager said: “Ross has, in a really pleasant way, really surprised me with how he is around the place as well.

“Just as a person, how talkative he is, how much he’s helping other players around the place.

"Not his football, his football’s not surprised me, but he’s a really deep thinker.

"He has a really intelligent football brain which I knew he’d have, but the way he communicates and talks to the players, that’s really surprised me, in a good way, he’s been a big help to us.

“He’s very, very humble, always having individual chats with players and talking about certain tactical little bits.

"’Can you turn there, can you look for me in this position?’

"He’s very, very helpful to those players, so we can learn and lean on them both (Barkley and fellow new signing Andros Townsend) as they’ve got better experience than all of us, including me as well at this level.

"It’s not just them as players, their humility, it’s how they are as people as well and that’s really important for us.”

Barkley showed just what kind of a player he could be for the Hatters with his display at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, as coming off the bench with 18 minutes to go, Luton soon going 2-0 down, he ran the show in the closing stages to help the visitors score twice and seal a 2-2 draw.

When asked if he felt the midfielder could reach the levels that saw him one of the country’s most exciting young players in the early part of his career, Edwards was hopeful after admitting he had pushed him too hard too soon earlier in the season.

He added: “I really hope so, he’s got the right attitude to do that.

"I thought the impact he made against Forest was excellent, so that was a really, really good start.

"We rushed him, it's understandable why we really did rush him to get him back and up to speed with us after having a pre-season on his own.

"He’s very, very fit, but there’s the difference between working on your own in pre-season to doing the team stuff as well.

"He comes in for games against Chelsea and West Ham and then unfortunately in the training the week after he just broke down when he was just starting to get going.

"He looks strong now, he looks fit.

"He’s a really good player, we love him and we’ll try and give him the platform and then it will be down to him as well.”