I guess we’ll soon find out!

He was at his best for us when he had what looked like a free role in the hole in a 4-4-1-1. That would probably mean he’s be beter suited in the middle of that 3, but you will clearly have much better players for that position.

I suspect, despite suggestions from the Shelvey camp/family, that he will be kicking his heels in the reserves and maybe the off League Cup game for a season or two until he has developed, and the youth setup at Anfield has decided on his best position.

As it was Rafa Benitez who signed him I’d have been interested to see to what extent Shelvey would have fitted into the Spaniard’s plans. Sadly we’ll never find out now, but with Hodgson arriving and saying he wants to bring a more English core to the team perhaps that works in Shelvey’s favour?

With the signing of Joe Cole I wonder does that push Shelvey now back in the pecking order? I’ve seen him play once or twice but don’t know too much about his best position – I’m guessing in a 4-2-3-1 he’d be one of the 3 either centrally or down the left cutting inside?

I do agree that when a player, even a young one, can’t get into a third division side one has to question his value, but to suggest that the author’s attitude can be blamed for the underperfotmance of the nationalside is a little dramatic.

At a push you could argue that this attitude has driven the expectations of our ‘local’ heroes, but not the cause of their relative failure.

The logic of suggestiung that a player is not the next Steven Gerrard and, therefore, can’t be worth more than £1.7m is stupid. If Gerrard was for sale for £4m then fine but as the majority of Liverpool fans would want a lot more than £4m for him is it not fair to say a player can be worth £4m but not be the next Steven Gerrard?

As for bringing in cheaper foreigh players, and, in fact, comparing Shelvey to Riera, when the need for home grown players is introduced Riera would potentially be worthless if he’s not English nor playing in Spain. Shelvey, on the other hand, could be used to pad out the world class foreign players that all Premier League teams have these days.

On the basis that the EPL is the richest league in the world, and will need to have English players in every side that makes English players worth a premium.

On one hand he claims that although Shelvey is a promising player he doesnt believe he will be the next Steven Gerrard.

On the other he cant understand how an 18 year who has had only a dozen first team games with Charlton doesnt fetch anymore than a 1.7 million transfer fee.

This is why there is so many young foreigners in the game, managers can bring in foreign players of equal quality much cheaper from abroad.

Why should shelvey have cost the same as Riera a player that up until recently was a fully fledged member of the Spain squad and was sold for 4 million.

Shelvey has potential but for the moment thats all it is.