Shelvey to Swansea- Good Deal?

Today, Liverpool announced the sale of midfielder Jonjo Shelvey to Swansea City. The fee is believed to be £6million. A lot of people are happy to see the back of Shelvey, but many others believe that he has a very promising future, and we shouldn’t have let him go.

Personally, I’m thrilled with Shelvey’s departure. Although he did show some potential when he played for us, there are clear flaws to his game. Firstly, he is extremely selfish. Often we would see him squander a good opportunity by going for an ambitious long shot when a pass would have been the better option. Admittedly we have seen him score some stunning goals from long range, particularly at under-21 level, but more often than not they don’t meet their intended target. This wastefulness and selfishness is evident in his goals/assists statistics. Despite playing 47 Premier League games for Liverpool, he only managed to score twice, and didn’t get a single assist. Although this will most likely improve a little as he matures as a player, selfishness is a trait that is hard to ever fully shake off.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, Shelvey is very much surplus to requirements. At Liverpool, we have a wealth of talented midfielders. Jordan Henderson, Joe Allen, Phillipe Coutinho, Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva all occupy central positions, and at the moment they are all better than Shelvey. On top of this, Liverpool are trying to bring in Heinrich Mkhitaryan, who also plays in a central attacking role. Even without Mkhitaryan, Shelvey was still a 6^th choice midfielder at Liverpool, so to get 6 million pounds for him is a very good bit of business.

Some would argue that Shelvey would have grown into a regular starter for us, but this suggestion is flawed. Shelvey is 21 years old, which, though young, is not much younger than most of our regular midfield starters. Of the six players mentioned above, only Gerrard is over the age of 26. This puts Shelvey in direct competition with all of them. Brendan Rodgers is building a squad for the future, and this is apparent in the midfield. Nobody would argue that Shelvey is as good as Coutinho, and yet they are the same age. Coutinho is good enough to make our first team already, and hopefully has a great career at Liverpool ahead of him. There is simply no point ‘investing in the future’ and holding on to players who show a few signs of potential if we have players the same age as them who are already good enough to make the first team!

Shelvey is not a bad player, and I’m sure he will improve with time. However, there are flaws in his game, and he cannot compete with the rest of our midfield. I wish him all the best at Swansea, but I don’t think we need him at Liverpool, and now we can invest the six million pounds in areas of the squad that actually do need strengthening.

-James Martin

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