Well neither did you lol

They two of them constantly pick Fellaini.

Think you'll find I said several times he should be given another chance.

Didn't think Jose would change but it appears he has, no way he goes back on his decisions a few years ago.

Mata at chelsea, Iker at real.

He's even brought Schwini back into things.

Which is the exact point

In an attacking sense. They don't have anyone as good at Schneiderlin at doing what he does.

supposedly Fellaini is an insanely hard worker in training. He's also the kind of guy who will probably run into barbed wire if a coach told him so.

I won't be happy about Schneiderlin leaving and he'll likely do quite well wherever he lands

Royal Blue, is he any good?

Elneny, Coq and Xhaka can all play as deeper CMs, and all 3 are good defensively (in different ways).

Really think arsenal are fine in CM, and if he can't get into your midfield he hasn't a hope of getting into ours.

In the post-Sissoko era that's a no brainer

I reckon he'll do well enough too, but at this stage considering how little football he's played the last few years I think it'd be a reasonably expensive gamble for a bigger club.

I like him a lot. Great control (one of the tightest I've seen really), good passer and creative. Can dribble as well but could use it more to actually get past people, atm he seems to use it more to manage the ball so to speak. But that's one of the things I actually really like about him, you can get him the ball in some awful situations and trust him to make something of it.

Critics think he's a bit to wasteful and a fair weather player, but imo that's mostly down to unrealistic expectations years ago. He's 21 and has been a first team player on a CL/EL team for almost four years now, that's a pretty good resume. Would certainly hurt to lose.

Some guy I follow on twitter who's a fan of both us and spuds has likened Meyer to Christian Eriksen recently. Dont know enough about Eriksen to comment on that but usually the guy knows what hes talking about

Danke herr

16-20m these days isn't *that* expensive for a defensive mid who has his skill set. I really would like to see him played more as Carrick isn't going to last forever and he is/was supposed to be the long term replacement.

Particularly if Levy can weave his magic and only pay £7m up front with the rest based on performance-related criteria.

We clearly need some direct competition for Eriksen. I'd rather we got a finished product such as Isco, but if Meyer is our ceiling, so be it.

Barkley is another option, but I'd rather see him come during the summer. I can't see him having an impact without a solid pre-season and an understanding of how he'd fit in our system. Plus, with only 12 months left on his deal, he'd be cheaper. You can probably make the same argument for Meyer's thought as his deal also runs out in June 2018.

Barkley wouldn't be competition for Eriksen, he would be moulded into a Dembele type midfielder as he simply doesn't have the vision to play as a playmaker ACM.

Six figure wages as well most likely.

Anyway, will be interesting to see how he gets on and it's definitely possible that he recaptures his old form - just do not want at arsenal

Draxler to P$G for £35.75m

What gives you optimism that Barkley can be effective in a deeper role?

He is 23, not 18. He's played regularly for 3 seasons in the PL. As far as I can tell, he's still the ~same raw/instinctive attacking talent as when he first broke into the first team. He can be frustrating and will squander possession quite often, but for that you get the odd moment of magic which will lead to a goal. He's good but not elite at what he does.

There are aspects of the deeper role which come naturally to Dembele but don't for Barkley. Things like positional awareness and discipline; the ability to break up opposition play with tackles and interceptions. Given his inability to develop his natural talent thus far, I'm not sure why you'd think he's a candidate to be coached to play a role which on the face of it doesn't seem a natural fit. The best I can say on it is that he has the physical attributes but clearly that's not enough.

I do not share this view either. I'm not close to convinced he has what it takes to play that role. For me he is still a raw AM that isn't too close to the level he needs to be at to be a starter at a club better than Everton.

Thechef,

I watched a 10 minute analysis video by some tactician guy on Twitter/YouTube showing multiple in play situations showing Barkley's lack of vision in the final third. Then they showed his strength and tackling to prove the narrators narrative and I was sold.

But the similarities to Dembele early in his career are similar to Barkley's at the moment, maybe Dembele was more raw, better at finding dead ends in a desert and less of an attacking threat than Barkley is but Dembele did developed into the beast he is today.

I'm with you on the "lack of vision in the final third". He compensates for that somewhat by being a really good striker of the ball. It would be wrong to say he is has no vision/creativity but he pales in comparison to elite playmaking talents. Really, I think his big talent is his ability to execute improbable goals and key passes. But it's not enough, not even for Everton now if they are as ambitious as they make out.

My previous post was really a long-winded way of saying I don't think that Barkley is a very intelligent footballer. He can get away with that playing an advanced position on the pitch. I think he'd be found out playing deeper in a Spurs team that emphasises ball retention. He loses it too often.

None of this post makes sense. Rose and Walker were both 23 when Poch took over at Spurs, and I think you can make the same comparison about their development up to the age of 23 and Barkley's - technically gifted players with a lack of tactical discipline. In the last three years Rose and Walker's discipline and awareness has shown a marked improvement (I assume) through good coaching.

In addition, if Dembele was born with some kind of "natural ability" as a DLP, he didn't show it during his first 3 seasons at Spurs. Up until the beginning of last season, he was largely unconvincing as either a CM or an AM, despite his obviously physical and technical attributes. Again, this looks like good coaching rather than some innate ability.

Anyway, to sum up, Barkley is technically good and physically outstanding which are two of the main criteria Poch looks for. He's obviously far from the finished product, but at 23 and at the right price, he can still be coached to be better tactically - If you don't have the physicality and technique at 23, you're never going to get it.

A fat Jonjo Shelvey

I thought his post made perfect sense actually. Certainly more sense than "Poch is awesome with dumb 23 year olds" anyway.

Also I think what has been a major problem for Barkley this season is lack of confidence. That generally causes players to make poorer decisions than usual, like for example quickly making a sloppy pass instead of taking his time with the ball and looking for a better alternative.