Joe is probably in the form of his life in this tournament, and sometimes that can do things to a footballer. He's proving on the biggest stage (as much to himself as anyone and I've a hunch that's important here) that he can cut it up against top class midfielders. His through ball to Ramsey for Wales first goal v Russia for example was the pass of the tournament so far in my view, and he appears to growing in stature by the minute. Against England up against our so called finest he was as good as anything else on the pitch, and I can't help thinking if we was in the Italian or the Spanish team we would be in raptures about him.
Should we keep him though? Well it's a tricky one. I suppose the answer is that if we don't intend to play him regularly we probably should sell, and so it boils down to asking whether or not he gets into our best team. At the moment in the form he is in I would say that yes he does, he is IMHO a better player than Henderson and is different enough to Can to be able to play alongside him. I've always had an inkling (despite the fact Joe has often stunk the place out when he's played there) that his best position will be as the sitter, the pivot, the "Pirlo". It could be now that with his new found confidence he could even challenge Can in there, or perhaps even release the German to be more "box to box" (where once again I see him longer term).
My guess is though that we will have an unhappy player on our hands if he stays as Jürgen doesn't see him in our first eleven. Not only that, any fee we would get for him will be wiped off. Because of that I'd say it is likely he will be sold for around 7-8 million. We might end up regretting it IMHO, and whoever buys him for that is getting an absolute f****** bargain.
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