He's had more than enough chances. Sure, it's a bonus if a manager can improve a player but for the most part, it's the managers' responsibility to give players a chance and the players responsibility to take those chances. I read an excerpt yesterday regarding LVG and how he gave Di Maria countless opportunities in numerous positions hoping he would perform but the Argentine just never did. At what point is the player held accountable? Pepe like Angel before him has to take responsibility for his failures, and the fact is that three different managers haven't trusted him, and he's shown exactly why whenever he's played. People were pining for him to start ahead of Willian this season and as soon as he got a chance, he went and got sent off. Then after returning from his suspension, he ended up performing even worse than Willian.
He's 25 years old and plays like a raw 19 year old. Except, we have two 19 year olds who are significantly more mature than him.
Yes, players develop at different rates, like coffee is black. But how many players in their mid-twenties are dodgy and inconsistent but then go on to turn it around? Most players who are dodgy and inconsistent go on to become even dodgier with time. He's half a season short of two full seasons and if he hasn't blossomed already, he's unlikely to go ahead and break out of his cocoon.
There's a sunken cost fallacy at play and his value will only erode further if we keep him.
Martinelli took less than 5 minutes to show why he's so much better than him and Saka has been outperforming him this entire season.
For the price we paid for him, there's no point keeping him even if he proves to be a good substitute. We've anchored 72 million next to his name and he's not shat the bed badly enough that we couldn't recoup just short of half of that.
