I thought myself last season, ‘he’s not going to be a starter here, is he?’. Which means I don’t exclude the possibility, but I think it pretty unlikely to happen.
Still I think he’s by no means as bad that prolonging his contract is a bad idea, or that it’s going to be a problem if he needs to play 20 games this season.
The contract issue is more about him being on low salary anyway, and we’ll get more money for him in case of a sale, regardless if it’s now or in several seasons. He’s 23, he’s not going to drop in value for a while.
Is he very bad? I don’t think so. He has played at a good level at no 10 and at LW for Granada, he’s played pretty ok as mostly a right-sided midfielder for Valencia, he’s had a very good preseason as a number 6 for us, and some okayish to underwhelming stop-start games for us as 6 or 8 for us this last year, largely while we have struggled as a team.
He has good all over technique, and has shown the will to buckle down and learn new roles less glorious than the ones he probably dreamed of. He’s young at 23, but he’s even you ger in the sense that he’s had little learning time in the roles we are now using him in. He’s not going to develop into a David Silva in a year, but he’s not going to be much worse than Wijnaldum as a no 8 if he improves steadily in that role in a team that functions.