Not really true with Baines or Jagielka to be fair. Baines started the season in the team, got injured and was out for a couple of months, and then struggled to displace Lescott from left back once he was fit again because we were doing so well. I don't doubt that some people would have been happy to sell Baines at that point - in the same way that some people would have been happy to sell Gana this year - but they would have been a tiny minority and quite clearly stupid. Jagielka played virtually every game in his first season with us. Coleman was a bit different in that we all knew he was a latecomer to the game, and he was initially treated as a bit of a novelty having only cost £60k.
It's a difficult balance with young players, you don't want to write them off too soon, but nor do you want to be handing out new contracts which mean you end up with a load of 25 year olds earning £30k a week and not getting a look in. I've seen people saying we should loan out Holgate next season, but that will mean he'll effectively be 24 and have spent 5 years at the club before we look at him becoming a regular. That's not ideal. At some point the club has to make a decision on whether a player is going to make it here or not, and a few of this bunch are beginning to look like the answer is going to be no. There's no shame in that, and it won't mean they can't have very good careers, but we're not Chelsea, we can't have 50 young lads on the books indefinitely just in case they turn out better than we thought.
