Enzo Barrenechea - on loan at Benfica

[AV84]

I guess being able to sell players for a decent fee without impacting the first team is a good thing, long term, but it feels a bit disappointing when they're players like this who seem to be having a good season and have loads of potential.

[SaddVillan]

Keep Barkley, sell Enzo.
Keep Enzo, sell Barkley

One  brings in money, retaining a known quantity who is only gong to depreciate in value.

The other brings in less money, but lets us keep a player (probablyb on lower wages), with untapped potential who, with a season of coaching by Unai  should be worth even more next summer should we need to sell; or might have become a really important player in our set up.

[Mister E]

I guess being able to sell players for a decent fee without impacting the first team is a good thing, long term, but it feels a bit disappointing when they're players like this who seem to be having a good season and have loads of potential.

Yep, and with Onana and Kamara seemingly getting injured through the long seasons we have and Barkley beginning to show a lack of pace Barrenechea should be an obvious squad-member  ...
... unless the future resides with Bogarde, Borland and Hemmings?

[algy]

Keep Barkley, sell Enzo.
Keep Enzo, sell Barkley

One  brings in money, retaining a known quantity who is only gong to depreciate in value.

The other brings in less money, but lets us keep a player (probablyb on lower wages), with untapped potential who, with a season of coaching by Unai  should be worth even more next summer should we need to sell; or might have become a really important player in our set up.

Not sure I agree with the second part of that.

By “lower fee”, realistically it is “no fee”. Nobody is giving us significant money for an aging Ross Barkley who’ll be entering the last year of his contract.

I’d also wonder, if he was playing for Luton beforehand, about if he was a particularly high earner. I’d suspect he isn’t in the grand scheme of things.

I dunno, if it turns out The Barron is going straight in to our first team then it goes without saying that we should keep him. But if he’s 24 and isn’t slotting straight in then I’d wonder if he’s ever going to be more than a squad player (ie a role Barkley already fills reasonably well) if our aim is to be competing at the top end of the table

[paul_e]

Keep Barkley, sell Enzo.
Keep Enzo, sell Barkley

One  brings in money, retaining a known quantity who is only gong to depreciate in value.

The other brings in less money, but lets us keep a player (probablyb on lower wages), with untapped potential who, with a season of coaching by Unai  should be worth even more next summer should we need to sell; or might have become a really important player in our set up.

Not sure I agree with the second part of that.

By “lower fee”, realistically it is “no fee”. Nobody is giving us significant money for an aging Ross Barkley who’ll be entering the last year of his contract.

I’d also wonder, if he was playing for Luton beforehand, about if he was a particularly high earner. I’d suspect he isn’t in the grand scheme of things.

I dunno, if it turns out The Barron is going straight in to our first team then it goes without saying that we should keep him. But if he’s 24 and isn’t slotting straight in then I’d wonder if he’s ever going to be more than a squad player (ie a role Barkley already fills reasonably well) if our aim is to be competing at the top end of the table

We're never absolutely sure of salaries but the best estimates I can find online are Barkley on £60k p/w and Barron on £15k p/w - that's a difference of nearly £2.5m for the year.

[AV84]

I dunno, if it turns out The Barron is going straight in to our first team then it goes without saying that we should keep him. But if he’s 24 and isn’t slotting straight in then I’d wonder if he’s ever going to be more than a squad player (ie a role Barkley already fills reasonably well) if our aim is to be competing at the top end of the table

I'd like to at least have him for pre season to give him a chance. Maybe like Ned last season, stays to January then on loan with a view to sale. I suppose the question is will he be worth more now after a full season, playing regularly, or after half a season on our bench?

[eamonn]

I guess being able to sell players for a decent fee without impacting the first team is a good thing, long term, but it feels a bit disappointing when they're players like this who seem to be having a good season and have loads of potential.

Yep, and with Onana and Kamara seemingly getting injured through the long seasons we have and Barkley beginning to show a lack of pace Barrenechea should be an obvious squad-member  ...
... unless the future resides with Bogarde, Borland and Hemmings?

The future resides in us having minimal home-grown talent coming through to the first team. We want to be challenging at the top and regularly selling youth is part of that aim.

[algy]

I dunno, if it turns out The Barron is going straight in to our first team then it goes without saying that we should keep him. But if he’s 24 and isn’t slotting straight in then I’d wonder if he’s ever going to be more than a squad player (ie a role Barkley already fills reasonably well) if our aim is to be competing at the top end of the table

I'd like to at least have him for pre season to give him a chance. Maybe like Ned last season, stays to January then on loan with a view to sale. I suppose the question is will he be worth more now after a full season, playing regularly, or after half a season on our bench?

Yeah, I suppose that's what I mean.  How likely he is to make an impact on our first team is a huge factor.  If he's just coming in to play the odd game, like Barkley is right now really, then I'd rather just sell him.  At 24 he's likely to be as good as he's going to be, or near enough.   £25m will be more use to us than spending our wage budget on a load of players who fill a gap for a dozen games a season but that's about it.

If he is good enough to improve the first team, that's a different conversation

[eamonn]

Yeah but how do you find-out unless you keep him?

[LeeS]

If we sell him this summer then his peak value is now. Or at least before he has a pre-season with us and we let the market know he hasn’t made the grade.

I’d love it if he is actually great and we keep him though.

[john2710]

I watched a few Valencia games over the last few months & whilst he's technically & physically very good, I'm not sure he's got the mobility for the Premier League.

He's a better option that Barkley, who despite the fact he could cover all midfields positions, seems to have lost the ability to run.

I suspect it will be a case of, will he replace one of Kamara, Onana, Tielemans & McGinn who are all ahead of him, or do we cash in & use the money elsewhere?

[Mister E]

I guess being able to sell players for a decent fee without impacting the first team is a good thing, long term, but it feels a bit disappointing when they're players like this who seem to be having a good season and have loads of potential.

Yep, and with Onana and Kamara seemingly getting injured through the long seasons we have and Barkley beginning to show a lack of pace Barrenechea should be an obvious squad-member  ...
... unless the future resides with Bogarde, Borland and Hemmings?

The future resides in us having minimal home-grown talent coming through to the first team. We want to be challenging at the top and regularly selling youth is part of that aim.

Well, I'd say it's a blend: we have some homegrown already in the squad, and Emery has a bit of history in bringing in homegrown talent. Equally, young talent can raise funds (Chuky and Kellyman being the obvious examples): I'm sure we'll be selling a few of the youngsters this summer.
At the moment it appears that the challenge is not PSR (which would necessitate maximising player-sales) but wages-to-rev ratios (requiring wages-management): young players will typically be on lower wages than experienced buy-ins.
So's it a mixed approach that's required.
Re Barrenechea, I've no idea whether he's good enough but he's had lots of games in the Italian and Spanish leagues and therefore seems to have some pedigree.

[AV84]

He's been called up the the international squad too, I think?

[eamonn]

Yes, but so has Goodday so it's no huge marker of quality. I mean, when did Argentina last win anything?

[RamboandBruno]

I’d say the main factor on whether we bring him in or sell him is Bogarde not Barkley. Bogarde’s best position in my view is the deep lying cm, but as we’ve seen he’s versatile enough to play centre back or full back. Though he struggled a bit in some earlier premier league and CL games, he was looking really good in the later games he played.
I’d say if Barklay is the short term cover for Kamara, Bogarde is the long term.
Doesn’t really leave much room for Enzo.