He was but he still had inconsistent/poor technique for the truly top teams - a combination of that and him not wanting to go anywhere is probably more correct than not.
He was great going forward overall and had great pace, but his crosses were 70-80% blind punts in the box and his shots were misses more than hits - a top team wants better, especially with the money we'd have requested (as we were better at the time overall). Ironically it was Ancelotti that shut down entirely the most serious link - to Bayern. I know how this works and I do remember his goal vs Swansea and those few highlight crosses on the head of Lukaku et al, true, but Baines did it better and more consistently while still having the pace and presence - realistically also why Baines was linked with teams more often. Lucky for us there were a good few left backs at the time, including "the greatest left back in the history of English football" Ashley Cole (
), and that he's an introvert who doesn't like change apparently.
Also both were constantly linked to a struggling/worse than us United at the time at an undercut price, which seems to be a trend for any Everton player.