Well, personally I think that if you get Shelvey on loan out of this, you will see a very good player this season. Most Liverpool fans were crying out for him to play by the end of last season (and he did) and would be pretty sore to see him leave on loan this year - he's the stand out player in preseason so far.
In terms of his attributes, he came to us from Charlton as an 'English midfielder' - box to box, all action. But now, he's a lot more rounded than that.
- He will get involved, he's got a very honest work-rate, he will track back and tackle.
- He has a pretty fearsome shot, he can get a lot of power behind the ball, Gerrard-esque but without Stevie's finesse.
- He seems very comfortable with Rodger's passing style early on. He always was a good ball-player over short and long range, but he seems to exert a lot of calm in the middle. He's been much better than Spearing or Charlie Adam so far.
- He is a danger from freekicks - on loan at Blackpool last season he scored a scorcher, and very nearly broke the net from 25 yards against Roma last night. On his loan at Blackpool, he did very, very well, scoring 6 goals in 10 games!
- The most impressive thing about him this pre-season is that his technique and close control have visibly improved. He's had a lot of lovely touches and pieces of skill in the box and was close to scoring several times.
- He's a big lad, and looks to have bulked out a bit this summer (strength wise). He'd certainly add height to your team in both boxes and a presence in the middle.
- I think he'd add to most teams in the league right now, obviously not your Chelsea or City, but he'd certainly play for all your rivals and most mid-table sides.
This is his real break-through season, and while he wasn't cheap when we signed him as a youngster, he's looking a bargain at the moment, real future ahead of him.
Here's Shelvey last night (sorry about the music). You want to skip to about 2 minutes in for the nice skill in the box.
[video=youtube;G-3CEw5g4nI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-3CEw5g4nI[/video]
And, here's him scoring in the league against Chelsea last season
[video=youtube;U-oqRXjP8Hs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-oqRXjP8Hs[/video]