Let me start by saying that both Allen and Britton would just walk into our starting eleven. I agree, Josh isn't yet good enough to be starting in a team competing for a top four finish in the PL, but then again, who in our midfield is? Definitely not Raul. My prime argument about selling Raul is that Josh provide almost anything Raul does on the pitch (except looking like a mafia guy from Vice City ). So here is a brief comparison of the two, please feel free to dispute any point I make: Defensively: Both seem to suffer in that domain. Josh's physical assets don't help him in tackles and most PL players seem to just brush him aside, but his sliding tackles are quite good. Raul is better at chasing the ball but seems unwilling to ever commit to a tackle making him a disaster at DM. Passing: Josh clearly wins this round. His short and composed passing is what makes his such a great prospect while his through balls sometimes look like magic tricks. I think he needs a bit more confidence to start making more forward passes. Raul, on the other hand, have showed that he can sometimes create good chances for his teammates, but he often messes up the simple short pass. In games, (like city away) his passing was just shocking (or atrocious ). Dribbling: Another point to Josh. He has excellent ball control and a good turn of pace while you'd rarely back Raul to get by a player, not that he often tries to. Experience: This is where Raul has a major advantage on our young Josh. His PL experience is major asset in any game. I would hardly say that Raul is miles ahead of Josh, which brings me to the conundrum: Why did our club send a nineteen year old who can easily turn into the next big thing and who desperately needs some playing time at the highest level to warm the bench in wales while he can't do much worse than the player we chose to start half of our matches? Essien should definitely be sold and Lamps should be a rotating option, no more. I think we can all agree on that. But that only means that we need to buy a couple of GOOD young midfielders in the summer. Meireles staying would only be a reason to not buy the players we desperately need. Besides, Raul is hardly much better than Lamps or Essien. This kind of strategy by our board is what led us to the predicament we're in. It is quite simple in my opinion: Average players who have no hope of developing to anything more should move on. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today