I don’t see it as Trent holding the club to ransom. Ultimately, it’s his career and it’s his own destiny. If he wants to develop into a midfielder, if he wants that position as his own, he can decide if he wants to move away to chase that or try and push for it here. We can all say things like he isn’t suited etc but the reality is we haven’t seen him really given the chance to start games and play full games in midfield. Inverting at right back has been a decent solution, moving him to a deep lying playmaker role towards the end of games has also worked, but ultimately it’s not playing midfield with and without the ball for 90 mins, is it? It’s unfortunate his injuries have coincided with Bradley’s rise as I’m fairly certain he’d have played there, especially against some of the sides we’ve been up against during this calendar year.
The obvious comparison is Gerrard when he wasn’t happy being played on the right, despite being outrageous there. Ultimately he felt he was better centrally and he proved it by being a quite ridiculous 10 from around 2007 and onwards.
My belief is Trent could play the midfield position, he might not be stupendous on the half turn etc but his IQ is so high and he can carry the ball quite well, ultimately he’ll find a way to get on the ball and influence the game. Some of the best sides we’ve ever seen grace the game have utilised his qualities in midfield from deep lying positions, I actually think his athleticism is better than some of those players so he could add runs into the box and score quite a lot as well if he has the right partner in midfield.