He should certainly be well motivated. If he doesn't make it here, the tabloids will deem him to have failed at three Prem clubs which could damage his future prospects.
Like others on here, I'd back SUE to sort him out.
Yep, that's got to be a motivating factor, for sure. Look at Sancho (who did perfectly okay for us last year, not brilliant, not terrible, and he contributed to a trophy win). He's now available on a free transfer and looks like he might be going to Saudi as no one in a competitive league is willing to take a punt on him after 3 premier league clubs decided they didn't want him. Clearly very talented, but talent alone often isn't enough.
If Sancho truly reached the mark of perfectly okay last season then why does no team in a competitive league want him?
Because "okay" isn't good enough for the sort of money he now expects. He wants "very good" money, for "okay-ish" performances. We paid it for a season, but no longer than that, and certainly not for a five-year deal he's likely to want.
People seem to think I'm defending him, I'm not. He wasn't good enough last season, but he was "okay", okay enough such that Unai played him 30+ times and he was part of the team that finished 4th and won a trophy. That doesn't happen if he was crap. Underwhelming? Absolutely. Frustrating at times? Definitely. Crap? No.
I expected more, and I had no desire to see the club sign him permanently this summer, but I look back at his time with us as him coming in and doing an okay job most of the time, and helping the team to its best season in a generation.
If we'd signed him permanently last season, I'd certainly be one of those suggesting we need to move him on as it's not worked out as well as we'd hoped - but as it was just a loan, I shrug my shoulders and say "fair enough, he did okay" and send him back with my best wishes.
