Obviously the lad wants out for personal reasons and doesn't look as though he'll be for changing his mind but at the end of the day he's wanted that for the last 18 months, or thereabouts, and is still turning in performances of a consistently good standard. Would you sell him in a summer or keep him for the next season? His contract runs until 2021 (the end of the following season) and I don't think he'd down tools if not allowed a move. If you would sell him what kind of price do you think we should look at? Personally for me I'd keep him for the start of the next season an maybe look at it in January if he still wants out. He's done what's asked of him since coming into the squad in December and could improve over the next 2 years especially under Rafa.
Sell him. He's hardly irreplaceable. We should be improving on people like him anyway. Get Micky Merino back in to play with Longstaff. Get rid of Hayden and Diame
Sell. He doesn’t want to be here and currently is enjoying a relatively good spell. For me, it won't last as he’s simply not good enough. Plus we need better to improve.
If he wanted to be here I would keep him. One of our best performers at the moment. Would never keep a player who wants to go though.
Even though he wants away you can't fault his effort or commitment. One of our better players this season.
If he wants to leave for reasons outside of football then let him go. As he's wanted to leave for a while, his performances on the pitch, if anything have improved since he's stated he wanted to go. It's a credit to him personally and professionally that he just gets on with the job he's asked to do. It makes a refreshing change to the usual portrayal of the modern footballer sulking their way through their career whilst amassing £££ in the bank. He'll make a good captain for a team one day as he is quite vocal on the pitch and comes across well in interviews. So with all that in mind he's probably pricing himself out of a move!
Tough one. If he was to turn round and say he wants to stay, I think he'd make a decent back up in central midfield. My concern would be similar to the Shelvey scenario though. I'd retain Shelvey as back up to Longstaff but I couldn't see him accepting it. Equally if we got a quality defensive midfielder, I'd be ok with Hayden covering. Again though would he be happy given its likely he would only have changed his mind because of game time. The other aspect is whether you think his stock will ever get higher. I suspect not as he is pretty limited, and I think he has done well for a lad of his ability this season. He started the season poorly when he played, got into a golden spell in our good run, dipped again when Longstaff got injured, and now, like the rest of the team, is doing a grand impression of a 45min footballer. His value is probably at peak now so from a purely business sense its a no brainer. If you remove all the pieces from the board and its just simply a case of "would you keep to back up a quality player purchased in the summer" then mine would be an emphatic yes retain him. With all the other factors I'm not sure its worth it. The good thing is we are talking about someone who will be very easy to replace quality wise. The bad thing is I think we might have to search a while to find someone as professional and committed. My ideal for next season would be to see Longstaff starting alongside Maia/Ascaibar/Seri with Hayden and Shelvey providing cover. Realistically I think Diame and Ki will be providing the cover and the other two will be gone.
He's an average player in my opinion and we would do well to upgrade. Back in the real world, Ashley is our owner and this is the level we are operating at.
