Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
James, based on the fact that as good as Bailey is I think there's more players of his type around that Everton can attract whereas James is one of a kind good.
Now, there's probably more long-term pros to Bailey.
But it shouldn't be a straight shoot out between the two if we manage the squad correctly.
We cannot keep getting rid of our best players and expecting progress.
People point to Leicester, but they do that while already having a lot of other good players they keep.
Southampton found out the hard way when their talent ran out, for example.
If somehow we could add Bailey/Antony and Aarons/Emerson then aside from a CB + CM (who we could go for next summer) then id say we'd have a very exciting team.
The James situation as you say shouldnt be a debate really...in essence weve got him for 2 seasons as we have a club option and he should start every match when fit.
If it was me, id be solely focused on getting the deadwood out of the squad now and teeing up deals for RB/RF from the 4 names above.
We also need to extend one or two contracts which seems to be an issue as well i imagine.