And I agree he hasn't been "a very good player". I will admit he was never 60m midfielder. But that makes no difference if we payed 10m or 60m for him if he's a squad player now, the only thing that matters is whether it will be easy to upgrade on him.
With a year left on his contract, how much you think we're getting for Fred? 15-20m would be my guess. You seriously think we get a better player than Fred for that money, and we sign someone on similar wages?
I certainly don't think so. 11 G+A over the season, top 15% for xAG, shot creating actions, and all that on top of top 3% for tackles and blocks. Really seems to me like he simply isn't liked and people go from one extreme to another, with the idea to bin everyone who is not on Gundogan level.
Again, if we have all the money in the world we can just release 70% of the squad and buy whoever we want, but we're living in different reality at the moment and Fred has his value. He is very close to being perfect squad player who will not moan when not playing for a month, can play 90' of intensive football, has great injury record and is actually an effective patch whenever called on the pitch. But since you're very confident about finding an upgrade on him I am open to your suggestions.