Yup. There's a lot of knee-jerkers on here, blessed with short memories and an inability to accept certain truths.
For instance take Gareth Barry - he had a great season last year and when the discussions on here turned to "Should we sign him permanently" we had dozens of posters clamouring for him. Some of us sounded a note of caution and pointed out that his age, combined with the fact he was never blessed with pace to begin with, meant that IF we signed him we would have to manage him carefully and not simply play him in every game. We were shouted down.
Lo and behold, too many minutes in too many games without sufficient rotation has caused Barry problems, and the same posters who insisted he was a nailed on starter for three years are now asking for him to be banished. The true problem of course is Gibson's inability to stay fit (another valid observation shouted down by the masses) and provide the necessary cover to rotate with Barry.
There is a massive blind spot on this forum for many posters when it comes to succession planning: look at the LB spot for evidence of that. People would rather simply play Baines there until he drops dead, rather than accept that he will inevitably decline as he ages and therefore start making alternative plans with the two promising understudies (Oviedo and Garbutt) currently on our books.
As for the players you named, I've not seen any real criticism of Coleman or Barkley; those wetting the bed about Lukaku are allowing his price to influence their opinion too much; the criticism of Pienaar is slightly more warranted, but it's interesting that the ultimate cause of his decline (age) is acknowledged in his instance but ignored when the likes of Barry are mentioned.
