I agree about dowell. Don't get where the love for him has come from. Did he do ok in the 22 nil game? The same game mirralas scored 5 in a half? He's not even near to being a stater for us.
We need to make a decision on Dowell this window. The lad has 12 months left on his contract. He had an excellent first half of the season on loan at Forest last season until a change of manager brought a change in fortunes. He is a world cup winner at U20 and was a regular starter for the national U21s last season.
There's no doubt that he is a very talented lad and we have nobody else in our current squad that has his skillset. But there is also no doubt that he is not yet ready to be a regular starter for the first team which, at 20, is only fair to expect.
As far as I can see, we have 3 choices.
Firstly, we can sell him. A similar player at Norwich, James Maddison, went to Leicester for a reported £24m in the summer. Bear in mind that he has been behind Dowell in the England pecking order, but did finish the season stronger when Dowell tailed off. Given that Dowell has 12 months left on his contract we will get nowhere near that figure for him.
Secondly, we can send him on loan again. If we do that and his contract runs down he is a free agent at the end of the season, and all we'll get is a development fee of, possibly a mill at most.
The third choice is to include him in the first team squad, have him playing and training with top players and allowing Silva to coach him 1-1 to work on his weak area's. Getting playing time from the bench as Siggy's back up and starting the odd game against lesser opposition at home and in cup games. Whilst here, we can then work on a new contract extension.
There is a fourth choice, which is to extend his contract and send him back out on loan. But given his new agent is also Ross Barkley's, and Kieran is on record as saying he had no contact with the club for long periods whilst on loan last season, I think it's fair to say that it's highly unlikely this option is even in the table as far as the lad is concerned.
Given the options, the lad had has to be in the squad next season. Anything else is gross negligence by the club.