Tam There are very few calls for him to be sold, suggesting people want him gone due to impatience overlooks and is unnecessarily dismissive of the very real concerns about his fitness and capacity to contribute.
His injuries are concerning tbh. He obviously won't be able to contribute when he's injured. However, as a homegrown player, it'll be difficult to get another HG player who will be good enough to get regular minutes under Arteta unless we spend big on a ready made bonafide first teamer. Ones without HG status won't count unless we get rid of another non HG player instead as only another HG player could replace ESR.
For someone who we know how good they are, especially when they are on low wages, it wouldn't be that problematic (at least for the club like resigning Nelson who never plays) to keep him for the times he is fit (assuming he remains injury prone that is). I'd much rather that than getting in another HG status "smash in case of emergency" warm body who will also not play much.
Aside from his injury issues, there is also the issue of how much time he gets when he actually is fit and in the squad. We can't put on him that he isn't contributing to the team if he is not being picked even when he is fit. He was injured for a month in November/December but aside from that has been in the squad for every single game other than the one against West Ham the other day. He was in the squad for 17 out of our 24 games yet he only stared 2 games, didn't even come off the bench in 9 games. In the games where he did come off the bench he only played 22mins, 21mins, 11mins, 9mins, 1min and 1min. He played 2mins in the Community Shield and 3mins in the FA Cup games despite being fit.
Maybe I'm biased (well I'm pretty sure I am tbh) when it comes to ESR. I do worry that injuries may rob him of reaching his full potential, but at the same time I also feel when he is fit that he should be getting much more time on the pitch than he's actually getting.